Written in Stars
by BarnCat23
Summary: Four years after The Breach was closed, the Kaiju have found a new way to surface and reek havoc on all of Earth. The Jaeger program has been re-opened to stop them. A tragic accident has caused a replacement for Mako in Gypsy Danger and as Pentecost's assistant. Lila and Levi plan to fill those positions. Warning first FanFic in this category. Book 1 in the "Twisted Fate" trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

Feet pounded on cement, people scurried about, and Lila pushed through the crowd as she made her way down the hallway to the training room. It was her job to get things done and get them done on time. And she was running on the edge of late. It was a busy day in the Shatterdome and Lila wondered why. She knew there was a new recruit joining the project today but it was nothing new.

She rounded the corner and entered the training room just as Pentecost was entering. They both stopped near the doorway and glanced at each other. "Everything alright?" he asked her.

"Yes, sir. Shall we begin?" she asked. He nodded and she turned to the training floor where the new recruit stood. He was tall with brood shoulders, brown hair and green eyes, and he wore a cheesy grin. He was cocky. The typical I-can-do-anything-I-want type.

Lila looked at her tablet for a name. "Levi Smithson?" she asked. He nodded and twirled the wooden stick he held. Lila shuddered as she remembered her childhood. Lila and Levi went to school together. He would always playfully tease her and steal her hair ribbons. Once, when he stole her hair band, he said he wouldn't give it back unless she kissed him. She just kicked him in the shin and took it back.

"Lila? Something wrong?" Pentecost asked. She shook her head and focused on the present. "Nothing sir."

"Then proceed." She glanced at Raleigh Becket, the co-pilot of Gypsy Danger, and nodded. He nodded back and she noticed he seemed not completely here. Inwardly she felt bad for him, given what has happened. But on the outside she kept a solid face, kept it professional.

Raleigh and Levi begin sparring. They blocked and parried each other like they'd done it for years. Lila quickly noticed they were Drift compatible. She wrote it on her tablet. Pentecost looked to her and she nodded. He nodded once and stepped forward. "I've seen enough. Levi, you're Raleigh's new partner. We'll do Drift tests tomorrow," He turned back to Lila. "Show Levi to his room please." She nodded and motioned for Levi to follow, and he did. She led him down the hall to the barracks.

She stopped at the room across from hers and to the right of Raleigh's. "This is yours," she handed him the key. "I'm across the hall if you need anything and Raleigh is next door." She turned and started for her room. "It's Lila right?" he asked. She stopped and turned back around. She nodded and he thought about it for a moment. "What's your last name?"

"Archer" she said. He smiled as she said her last name. he recognized the name quickly and thought back to when he was in school. He looked Lila up and down and noticed she looked the same but just older. She looked good, he thought. He shook the thought from his head and turned to open his door.

Lila held a sigh of relief he didn't ask her about her past. She turned around and scurried into her room. She shut the door and the hinges whined loudly. She sat her tablet on the small desk in her room and sighed. She escaped him this time. But tomorrow won't exactly be easy.


	2. Chapter 2

Lila headed to the control room for the Drift test. She arrived twenty minutes early, like she usually did. She put her black ear piece in and sat at one of the monitors by the front wall. "What is Raleigh's ETA?" she asked.

"Should be here about five minutes" someone behind her replied.

"And Levi? Has anyone seen him since the Mess hall?"

"No, but I assume he'll be here" the same person said. She sighed and ran through the procedure in her head. Drift tests were always nerve racking to Lila. She hated watching but she had to, it was her job. Pentecost stood beside Lila. "They're suiting up" he said. She nodded and checked the maintenance history on her computer. Pentecost put his hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. He nodded reassuringly and she looked back at her computer. He removed his hand and folded both behind his back.

Raleigh and Levi, in full plating, strapped in inside Gypsy Danger. "Don't hold onto your memories in the Drift, remember they're not real" Raleigh reminded.

"Got it" Levi said. Raleigh looked at his partner; worried Levi would get one if not both of them killed. It made him nervous with how cocky he was. He took a deep breath and said, "We're in." the door closed and sealed behind them.

In the control room, Lila tried not to bite her nails. "Beginning mental link process" she said, into her ear piece. She watched the brain wave patterns on the screen as the man next to her started the test. The man looked at her and nodded. "Beginning drift in three…two…one" he said.

All of Levi's childhood memories flashed in front of his eyes. He tried to focus on his present. He came out of the memories and was back in the Jaeger. He sighed. "You good?" Raleigh asked.

"I'm good" he said, holding his thumb up.

In the control room, Lila watched the vital signs and brain waves. She sighed as they all fell into sync. "Drift was successful" the man beside her said.

"Excellent," Pentecost said. "Get them out, and get them training. We don't have a lot of time." Lila stood and hurried to the Jaeger. Raleigh and Levi just walked out when Lila walked up to them. "The drift was a success. Pentecost wants you both training ASAP" she said. Raleigh sighed and walked off. "You, too" she said, when Levi didn't move. She motioned for him to get moving and he did.

Raleigh and Levi sparred while Lila watched and wrote it down on the progress report. Lila was looking at her tablet when she heard a loud thud. She looked up and saw Levi on the ground. "Focus," Raleigh said, sternly. "On training not girls." Lila laughed to herself and looked back down at her tablet. When she looked back up they were training again. She looked at the time on her tablet. "That's enough for the day," she said. "You'll miss dinner if you train any longer." Raleigh nodded and Levi winked at her. She rolled her eyes and left the training room.

She walked alone to the mess hall. It was full of people sitting at tables and talking. She made her way to the food line and got her dinner. She sat at a vacant table in the back right corner. She ate quietly until someone said, "Is this seat taken?" she looked up and Levi was standing on the opposite side of the table. She shook her head and he sat down. She went back to eating while Levi looked her over again. He couldn't stop looking at her. Her Mahogany brown hair accented her emerald eyes perfectly. The lines and angles of her face were soft and even.

She was the most beautiful girl ever in his mind. She noticed him starring and looked up. "Is something on my face?" she asked.

"No."

"Then stop starring, it's rude" she said.

"But you're just so fun to stare at" he said, sarcastically. She sighed and rolled her eyes and went back to eating. "Lighten up."

"Lighten up? Did you really just say that?" she tried to keep her voice down so no one would hear her getting angry. "Last time we saw each other, you were a complete asshole to me, and you want me to 'Lighten Up'?" He fumbled for something to say. She rolled her eyes and stood. "Come find me when you grow up" she said. She left the mess hall and headed for her room.

Levi mentally hit himself. He was such an idiot, and he knew it. He was great with girls…except for Lila. He could never figure out what to say and when to say it. And he just blew it. He stood and left the mess hall.

Lila unlocked her door and opened it when a hand touched her shoulder. She turned around to see Levi standing before her. She took note he looked upset. Almost regretful. It was an unusual emotion to see in him. "I'm sorry I hurt you. I was an idiot kid back then. I've changed" he said. She crossed her arms, as if to guard herself. "Prove it" she said. He tried to think of a way to show her he was different now. But he couldn't. She huffed. "You can't can you? Because you haven't changed at all. You're still the same Levi that stole my hair ribbons in fourth grade."

Just then he thought of something completely insane, but he had to try it. He cupped her face with his hands and pressed his lips against hers. She stepped back a second later. She didn't know what to say after that. Her cheeks were pink and his were too. She quickly turned around and walked into her room, closing the door behind her.

She lean against the wall and sighed. _I can't be in love_, she thought. _He pilots a Jaeger. He could die and then where would that leave me?_ She turned off the lights and slipped into her bed.


	3. Chapter 3

A loud siren went off and Lila sprung up in bed. She recognized the siren. A Kaiju has surfaced. She quickly threw on an outfit and ran to the control room. She walked in as people were hurrying about the room. Pentecost stood at the front monitor watching live news footage from a station in Australia. Lila stood by his side and looked at the screen. People were running and screaming as a huge beast rose up from the water and came up to land. "How bad is it?" she asked.

"Level four" he said.

"Which Jaeger's are you sending out?"

"Gypsy Danger."

"Just one? Sir?" he nodded and walked out of the room. Lila sat down at her seat and put in her ear piece. She checked the status of Gypsy Danger on her screen. "Raleigh and Levi are strapping in now" the man beside her said. She pressed on her ear piece and said, "Three minutes to start up."

"Can't the Kaiju just wait until at least five am?" Levi said in her ear piece.

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that" she said, readying the start up on her screen. The man beside her turned on Gypsy Danger once Raleigh and Levi were strapped in. they taxied the Jaeger to the platform where the helicopters were attached to it. It was lifted off the platform and headed for Australia.

In the control room, Lila took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. She'd only done this twice. And both times she felt like throwing up. "You've got roughly two-thousand miles until the drop" she said into her ear piece.

Inside Gypsy Danger, Levi couldn't wait to get his hands on the Kaiju. He was nervous and excited all the same. "One thousand miles." Lila's voice came over the speaker. Raleigh looked at Levi after Levi's last thought. "Really? You're thinking about that right now?" he asked.

"I can't help it, it just happens" Levi replied, grinning. Raleigh rolled his eyes and looked up at his screen. The last thing he wanted when he was going to fight a Kaiju was to be thinking of Lila. Thanks to Levi, his head was filled with her.

In the control room, the man beside Lila checked vital signs while Lila monitored distance until the drop. The numbers drastically grew smaller and smaller until it was only ten miles out from the drop and Lila's stomach twisted. "Five minutes until drop" she said. Pentecost appeared back by her side a minute later, watching the screens. "They're dropping" the man beside her said. A minute later he said, "Gypsy Danger is in the water."

The Kaiju screeched, baring its blue mouth and yellow teeth. It bounded toward Gypsy Danger at its full speed. It got close enough and leaped toward it. Gypsy Danger reeled back its right arm and shot it forward, hitting the Kaiju's stomach. It fell back into the water creating a large spray. The Kaiju got up again and lunged for the Jaeger. It landed on Gypsy Danger and screeched as it ripped off the Jaeger's left arm.

In the control room, Lila gasped as the left arm of the Jaeger on her screen turned red. "We've lost an arm" the man beside her said. Pentecost sighed, frustrated.

On the shore of Australia, Gypsy Danger turned it's right arm into a sword and slashed at the Kaiju. It cut through the Kaiju's tail as it whipped toward Gypsy Danger. The Kaiju cried out in pain and lunged for the Jaeger again. Gypsy Danger slashed it's sword at the last second and cut the Kaiju in half. The two halves flew on opposite sides of the Jaeger and splashed into the water.

In the control room, a sigh of relief fell across the room. A beeping sound started from Lila's computer and the screen changed to a map of the coast of Australia. There were two red dots. One was Gypsy Danger. The other was a second Kaiju. The second dot was moving fast toward Gypsy Danger's dot. "There's a second Kaiju coming in fast from the east" Lila said, half to her ear piece and half to Pentecost standing beside her.

On the coast of Australia, Gypsy danger turned around just as the second Kaiju slammed into it, knocking them both back into the water. The Kaiju slammed it's hand through the torso of Gypsy Danger, ripping out it's mechanics and disconnecting it from the legs. Gypsy Danger shot the Kaiju with the sonic cannon until it fell back. Gypsy Danger was just floating in the water now with no way to move by itself.

In the control room, Lila checked and double checked vital signs of the second Kaiju. "It's dead. But Gypsy Danger is just floating. Without legs it can't move" she said.

"Send the helicopters out" Pentecost said. She nodded and radioed the hanger with her ear piece. "This is control, requesting three choppers to extract Gypsy Danger" she said.

"_Copy that control." _

Inside Gypsy Danger, Raleigh and Levi both thought the same thing: _That was close_. "You were really cutting it close there, guys," Lila said, through the speakers. Raleigh and Levi both chuckled. "Extraction in five minutes."

"Thank god, I hate swimming" Levi joked.

"Ha, ha funny-guy" Lila said, sounding a little too happy. Raleigh looked at Levi suspiciously. Levi shrugged just before they both were jostled forward. The helicopters were lifting them.

On the coast of Australia, the helicopters carried Gypsy Danger over Australia and the people on the ground cheered.  
Once they were back at the Shatterdome, they flew into the hanger and taxied the Jaeger back to its post. They used chains to hang up the Jaeger in position as if it had legs still.

In the control room, the man beside Lila locked Gypsy Danger into place. "She's secure" he said. Lila stood and walked to the Jaeger. Raleigh and Levi walked out of the Jaeger and Lila crossed her arms. "Good job. Both Kaiju are dead" she said. Raleigh nodded with a smile and walked off. Behind her, Raleigh mouthed to Levi, _Talk to her_. He turned and walked out of the room. Levi sighed and Lila raised an eyebrow. "Are you not happy with the success of the mission?" she asked.

"No, it's not that," he said. "Can we talk later?"

"About what?" Lila asked, shifting her weight from one of her high heels to the other.

"You know, about yesterday."

"Oh…yeah, sure." She turned and walked back to the control room to make plans for repairing Gypsy Danger's legs.

Levi sighed and walked to his room. He shut the door and slowly peeled off all of the platting on his body. He changed into the typical black cargo pants and form-fitting black long-sleeved shirt he wore, and looked out his peep-hole. He saw Lila walking to her door and opened his. He jogged across the hall and she turned around. "Can I help you?" she asked, fully knowing he was watching to see when she would get to her room.

"You said we could talk."

"That I did" she said.

"So…can we talk now?" he asked. She laughed and shook her head. She turned around and unlocked her door. She pushed it open and walked inside, motioning for him to follow, and he did. She shut the door behind him so they wouldn't be overheard. She turned toward her bed, facing away from him, and took off her shirt. She fumbled through her drawer next to the bed for a different shirt. Levi couldn't help staring. He bit his lower lip as his eyes looked over every inch of her bare back.

She slipped on a black tank top and turned around. Levi pretended to look somewhere else but she knew he was staring the whole time. Inwardly she smiled, but she kept her face neutral. "So, start talking" she said.

"Right, uh, about yesterday," he said, as she let her hair out of her pony tail. It rested just above her shoulders at full length. His heart thudded faster as he looked at her. "I kissed you, and, um, I was wondering if-"

"If I felt that way?" she asked. He nodded instead of stuttering on his words. She wanted so badly to tell him no. but that would be a lie, and she's anything but a liar. She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. Levi started to think she was trying to find a way to let him down easy. "I do…but, I don't think being together is a good idea" she said. He perked up when she said, 'I do'. "Why not?" he asked.

"Because if something was to happen to you, and we were involved, it wouldn't be good." He walked closer so he was right in front of her. She tried to step back but the backs of her knees were already touching the bed. "You know I'd always come back to you" he said, quietly.

"You can't guarantee that, Levi." He put his hand on her cheek and ran his thumb across her smooth skin. Lila felt a wave of adrenaline pumping through her. His touch was like sparks of lightning. With her heels she was only two or three inches shorter than him. She gave in to temptation and leaned forward. He met her half way and they pressed their lips against each other.


	4. Chapter 4

Lila woke to sirens blaring. She got out of bed and threw on an outfit before running out the door. She walked in the control room and tried to look like she didn't just run all the way there. Pentecost turned around and eyed her then smiled. "I would like to say good morning, but as you can see by the sirens it isn't" he said. She nodded and sat down in her seat. She put in her ear piece while the man beside her said, "They're strapping in."

"How bad is it this time?" she asked him. He looked at his monitor before answering. "Level five Kaiju off the coast of Alaska."

"Aren't the waters too cold up there for them?"

"That's what we thought, but I guess not." she sighed and turned to her computer. "They're strapped in" she said.

"Drift in five…four…three…two…one. Commencing Drift" the man beside her said.

"They're using our new Jaeger while Gypsy Danger is being repaired—Continental Drift" Pentecost said.

"With all due respect sir, Continental Drift is not ready yet to be out in the field" she said, looking up to him.

"We forwarded the plans and finished early." She looked back at her screen. She pressed on her ear piece. "Hanger four this is Control, requesting choppers for transport of Continental Drift" she said.

"_Copy that Control, sending in two choppers."_ She opened the hanger doors and they taxied Continental Drift to the platform. It was as tall as Gypsy Danger but it was thin and more maneuverable. It was dark, metallic blue and its left hand had a sharp spike on the back that was white. It was a perfect Jaeger, but it wasn't finished testing. Lila knew that, but she didn't have a choice. They were to use Continental Drift.

Lila connected her ear piece to Continental Drift's speakers. "Okay guys, this Jaeger's sonic cannons haven't been tested. Be cautious" she said.

"If it hasn't been tested why is it in use?" Raleigh asked. Lila glanced up at Pentecost then looked at her screen. "It's all we've got until Dark Knight is complete or Gypsy Danger is repaired" she said. The helicopters attached to Continental Drift and lifted it. The helicopters began carrying it toward Alaska. "You'll drop in forty-five," Lila said. "How is it in there?"

"It's definitely new" Raleigh said.

"Yeah it's got that new-car-smell" Levi said.

"Everything seems operational. I'm working on getting the sonic cannon charged. This Kaiju is a level five, so you're going to need it."

Off the coast of Alaska, the Kaiju stood out of the icy waters and bellowed and ear-piercing sound. Two smaller Kaiju stood up on either side of it and did the same. The larger Kaiju started for the coast and the smaller Kaiju followed.

In the control room, a map of Alaska and its coast came up on Lila's screen. Three red dots were moving closer and closer to the land from the water. "We've got three Kaiju heading for Alaska" she said.

"Three? They're has never been three at one time" the man beside her said. Lila turned and stood. "Sir, we need more Jaeger's out there," she said to Pentecost. "Continental Drift is powerful, but it can't fight three all alone."

"That's not an option. We don't have enough pilots to send out Dark Knight, and he's not finished yet" he said. Lila had a crazy thought. She took a shaky breath and said, "I can pilot Dark Knight." Pentecost started to protest. "Dark Knight was meant for one person. I know his operating system better than the mechanics" she said. Pentecost thought about it. He looked at her with a serious expression. "Are you sure you're willing to put yourself in that position?" he asked. She nodded and he sighed. "Suit up."

Inside Continental Drift, Pentecost spoke over the speakers. _"We're sending out Dark Knight"_ he said. Raleigh and Levi shared a concerned look, thinking the same thing. "Who's the pilot?" they both asked. It was quiet a minute. _"Lila"_ Pentecost said.

"Are you serious? She can't pilot a Jaeger, she's not trained" Raleigh said.

"I don't have anyone else. She's qualified for the job and she's all I've got. She'll be there in less than an hour."

On the platform, they taxied Dark Knight out. Dark Knight is an American model with all black paint. He wears a white Eagle on his chest. Dark Knight has a complex A.I. system that allows one human pilot and the Jaeger as the other pilot. It had a stalky build with strong, durable legs.

Off the coast of Alaska, Continental Drift dropped from the helicopters and landed in the water. The three Kaiju stopped and turned around. The large Kaiju screeched and the two smaller Kaiju bounded for the Jaeger. Continental Drift's right arm turned into a sonic cannon and aimed for one of the Kaiju. It hit the one coming from the right but the one coming from the left leaped forward at the Jaeger.

Continental Drift twisted left, just barely escaping the Kaiju. The Kaiju flew behind them and landed in the water. It turned on its heels and lurched at the back of the Jaeger. It latched onto its back and bit down on its shoulder, ripping out most of its mechanics. The left arm of the Jaeger twisted completely around several times, shaking the Kaiju off.

Two helicopters flew in carrying Dark Knight. They dropped it several yards behind Continental Drift. Dark Knight's right arm outstretched to the right and turned into a blade. It started at full speed for the Kaiju behind Continental Drift.

The second smaller Kaiju that was shot stood up and saw another Jaeger. It tipped its head down and the small platelets on its head flurried and lit up purple. A burst of sonic blast was sent out and it hit Dark Knight, sending the Jaeger falling backward into the water.

Continental Drift spun around and sliced the Kaiju that was behind it in half. Then it turned back around and stared down the second Kaiju. The Kaiju screeched and started for the Jaeger. Dark Knight stood up and aimed it's cannon at the Kaiju. It fired and hit the Kaiju in the heart. It bellowed before falling backward, dead.

The larger Kaiju screeched an angry cry, blue saliva spewing from it's mouth. It started for the closest Jaeger—Continental Drift. Dark Knight stepped in front of Continental Drift and held up it's right-arm shield. The Kaiju slammed into the shield but Dark Knight dug it's feet in and pushed back. it's left arm sprung a blade and slammed it into the Kaiju's stomach from behind the shield.

The Kaiju screeched it's angry cry and crumpled backward into the water. Dark Knight folded in it's shield and sucked in it's blade.

Inside Continental Drift, Raleigh and Levi were both shocked. And a little proud. "Wow, Lila, didn't know you had it in you" Raleigh said.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't just me" Lila said through the speaker.

"That is correct." A deep, male voice spoke in the speakers. "Who was that?" Levi asked.

"You can call me Dark Knight," it said. "I am the Artificial Intelligence inside Lila's Jaeger." Raleigh and Levi shared a look. "You're like a super powered Kit" Levi said.

"What is a Kit?" it asked. "I cannot find it in my database."

"It's from the show Knight Rider. It was a black car that was like you" Raleigh said, looking at Levi like he was an idiot for bringing it up.

"I see. You will have to tell me more of this Knight Rider. But the helicopters are here to extract us."

Off the coast of Alaska, two helicopters grappled to Continental Drift and lifted it out of the water while two other helicopters picked up Dark Knight.

At the Shatterdome, Continental Drift was dropped on the platform and taxied into the hanger. Dark Knight followed in minutes later. They taxied them into their spaces and secured them in place.

In the Dark Knight loading room, Lila walked out of Dark Knight's head and saw Pentecost was waiting. His hands were folded loosely behind his back and a soft smile was on his face. "You did exceptionally well out there" he said. She held her helmet in her left arm and pulled out her pony tail with the right. "I hope you know that was a one-time deal until Dark Knight is fully operational."

"But he's operational now" she said.

"_He_?"

"It's an A.I."

"He's not to be sent out again until further notice. Get changed and get to the mess hall for lunch" he said. She nodded and walked down the hall passed Continental Drift's loading room. "Hey, there's the newbie," Raleigh said falling into step beside her. "You did great out there, Lila."

"Thanks. Dark Knight isn't ready for field work full-time yet, so I won't be going out again anytime soon" she said, as they rounded the corner into the barracks.

"How is that by the way? The whole artificial intelligence co-pilot thing?" he asked.

"It's just like having a human co-pilot except human co-pilots don't kick as much ass" Lila said, unlocking her door. Raleigh chuckled and they entered their separate rooms. Lila peeled off the plating and changed into one of her usual outfits and headed for the mess hall, passing Levi on the way. He whistled and winked at her as she passed.

She finally made it to the mess hall. She made her way into the food line and got her lunch then headed for her usual table. She sat down and two men came over to the table. "Mind if we sit? We're new here" one of them said. His accent was overwhelming. She recognized them as the new recruits for the Israeli Jaeger—River Rat. She nodded and they both sat side-by-side across from her. They both had on black yamaka's and chains around their necks with wooden Star of David carvings.

"You're from Israel right?" she asked. The man in front of her nodded. "My name is Mordechai Ben Joseph. And this is Benjamin" he said.

"My name is Lila, I'm the Drift-assistant and Pilot liaison. I also just piloted Dark Knight on a test run" she said.

"Dark Knight? He's the big black one, yes?" Benjamin asked.

"Yes, he is." The two men exchanged looks of admiration and looked back at her. "Our Jaeger isn't as scary as Dark Knight!" Mordechai said.

"He's so big and," Benjamin puffed up his chest and rounded his arms. "Tough looking." They both laughed. Lila smiled and said, "I've seen the videos of River Rat on the Jordan. He's definitely fast."

"Yes, one of the fastest in the world" Benjamin said.

"I can't wait to see him tomorrow on the tour. My dad is from Israel-"

"Wow, so you're half Jewish?" Mordechai asked.

"Yes" she said.

"So you're like a sister to us!" he said.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"Benjamin thought we would be the only ones here" Mordechai said, glancing at Benjamin.

"Well, now you have me," she said. "We can kick Kaiju ass together."


	5. Chapter 5

Lila led the tour group through the hangar that held the Jaeger's. The group was comprised of Mordechai Ben Joseph and Benjamin—the Israeli pilots—and Sarah and Claus—the Canadian pilots. Canada and Israel were new in the Jaeger program. Lila led them first to the American Jaeger, Continental Drift, in spot one. "This is Continental Drift, the first American model since the breach was sealed" Lila said to the group. Sarah raised her hand and Lila nodded. "What about Gypsy Danger?" she asked.

"That was the second 'made' after it was closed. Our Gypsy Danger is actually the second Gypsy Danger. It was rebuilt two years ago." She motioned for them to follow and they did. She led them to spot two, Gypsy Danger ii. It was still under repair and the legs had not yet been re-attached. Sparks flew from blow torches just below the torso. "This is Gypsy Danger the second, but we still call her just Gypsy Danger" Lila said. The group murmured amongst themselves and Lila led them to spot three, Dark Knight. They stopped in front of the Jaeger and Lila gestured to it. "This is Dark Knight, the Jaeger Project's first ever Artificial Intelligence co-piloted Jaeger. It's not completely operational yet, but will be soon" she said.

"Hello, Lila" the Jaeger's A.I. voice said. It echoed through the room. "Hello, Dark Knight," she said. "I didn't realize you were powered up."

"They powered me up three hours and twenty-seven minutes ago" he said. The group oohed and awed at the machine. "We'll see you later, I've got to finish this tour" Lila said.

"Goodbye Lila" it said. She turned and led the group to the next Jaeger, River Rat. It was thin, with twin blades on it's hands, and green and black Camo paint. "This is the Israeli Jaeger, River Rat. He's the only one of his kind to have synthetic carbon fiber as his hull instead of the light-weight density fiber that is normally used" she said.

"Go Israel!" Benjamin said. Lila motioned for them to follow and led them to the next spot, Death's Keeper. It was short and bulky in the torso. It was black with red spiral-stripes up it's arms and legs. "This is the Canadian Jaeger, built and manufactured in Canada without the support of another state," Lila said. "It's name is Death's Keeper." She gave them a minute to finish looking then said, "Time to show you to your permanent rooms."

She led them out of the hanger and to the second row of barracks. She stopped at the first door and gave Mordechai and Benjamin each a key. "Benjamin, this is yours, Mordechai yours is across the hall" she said. They split off to their rooms and Lila led Sarah and Claus to the next set of rooms. She pressed a key in each of their hands. "Sarah, yours is here, Claus yours is across the hall. Come find me if you need anything else" she said. They nodded and split off to their rooms. Lila sighed and walked back to the hanger. She walked to spot three and looked up at Dark Knight.

"You still there?" she asked.

"Of course. Where would I go?" it asked. She chuckled. "You're a very smart A.I. Knight. Is that okay if I call you Knight?"

"Yes, I like 'Knight' better. Especially coming from you, Lila" it said.

"Now don't go getting all mushy on me now."

"You're my Pilot. I have a duty to you" it said.

"No, Knight. I'm not you're pilot. That was a one-time thing. I don't think I'll ever pilot you again" she said, sadly. He was quiet for a long moment. "But I want you to be my pilot" he said.

"And I wish I could be," Pentecost and Raleigh silently stood a ways behind her, watching her interact with the new A.I. "I want to be, but I can't."

"Was it something I did?"

"No, Knight, you did nothing wrong. I'm just not ready" Lila said.

"I see" he said. Lila turned around and stopped when she saw Pentecost and Raleigh standing there. "How long were you two standing there?" she asked.

"Long enough," Pentecost said, walking toward her. He stopped a few feet in front of her. "You've grown fond of Dark Knight and he's taken to you."

"I'm sorry, sir" she said.

"Don't be sorry. We needed someone to pilot Dark Knight, or Knight as you call him, who was willing to form a bond with him. You've just given me one more reason why you should pilot Knight" he said.

"Really? I did?"

"Yes. You're going to pilot Knight when he's operational" he said. Lila resisted the urge to hug him. She could hardly contain her excitement. "Thank you, sir!" she said.

"Congratulations, Lila" Dark Knight said.

"Thank you, Knight" Lila said.

"The Albanian Jaeger will be here soon. Get to the control room" Pentecost said. She nodded and hurried out of the hanger and up to the control room. She walked in and sat in her seat. She put in her ear piece and readied a taxi for the new Jaeger on her screen. "Gold Star will arrive with it's pilots in ten minutes" the man beside her said.

"Hanger this is control, prepare to taxi in Gold Star from Helicopter lift" she said.

"_Copy that control, moving taxies into ready positions."_ On her screen the Jaeger was dropped onto the platform and taxied inside the hanger. _"Moving Jaeger to spot six, over."_

"Copy that, proceed to secure the Jaeger" she said. The screen changed to a live feed from the hanger. They secured Gold Star into spot six. He was thirty feet taller than the other Jaegers and his only color was gold. _"Gold Star is in locked position, over."_

"Copy that, hanger" she said. She confirmed the drop-off on her screen and took out the ear piece. She grabbed her tablet and left the control room.


	6. Chapter 6

"What's the problem?" Pentecost asked, sitting in the chair behind his wooden desk. Levi shut the door and stepped closer to the desk. "Sir, I don't think Lila should be piloting Dark Knight" he said.

"And why is that?"

"Because she's not trained and not fit to pilot a Jaeger, sir" Levi said. Pentecost sighed. He knew the real reasons why Levi didn't want Lila piloting Dark Knight, and it irritated him. Love between Jaeger pilots only gets one or both of them killed. That's what cost Mako her life.

"She's perfectly suited to pilot a Jaeger. I know you have feelings for my assistant, but that's no excuse."

"Sir, respectfully, I'd have to disagree."

"Then you go ahead and disagree. But it doesn't mean a thing, because she's going to pilot that Jaeger. End of discussion" Pentecost said. Levi bit back words that were about to spew from his mouth and left the office. He turned left to walk down the hall and stopped just before he bumped into Lila. She stepped back and so did he. "Sorry, I wasn't looking" she said.

"No, it was my fault" he said. She smiled without teeth and walked past him into Pentecost's office. She shut the door behind her and waited for Pentecost o notice she was there. He looked up from the files he was reading. "Yes?"

"Sorry to disturb you, but there are eight people waiting to be tested for drift compatibility in the training room" she said. Pentecost sighed and ran a hand over his face. He'd forgotten about the testing today. "You can handle the testing" he said. It wasn't a question, but an order. She shifted nervously. "Sir I'm not in charge of picking the pilots" she said.

"You're in charge of picking the pilots for Continental Drift. I can trust you'll do a good job, right?"

"Yes, sir, of course." She turned and left the office. She walked to the training room and stopped by the doorway. _You can do this_, she told herself. She took a deep breath and entered to the training room. Six men and two women lined the far wall, all holding wooden training sticks. Lila looked down at her tablet and searched the names for one to start. "John Corban and Sam Whittaker" she said. The two men she'd chosen stepped out from the line and got into position on the mat.

They were a little sloppy in overall performance. John was strong and smart, but he was lacking. Sam was quick on his feet but arrogant. When they were finished testing, it was time for Lila to choose someone. She wanted to make the right choice. Not only to prove to Pentecost she could do it, but so that Continental Drift was in good hands.

She sighed as she stared at the names she'd written on her tablet. There were several good matches but she needed a match that wasn't just good, but extraordinary. With that in mind, she decided. "The pilots of Continental Drift are Jack Thompson and Wes Burke" she said. The two stepped out of the line. "Follow me" she said. She led them to the loading room for Continental Drift. "Suit up and strap in. I'll be in the control the whole time" she said. They nodded and she walked out of the loading room and started down the hallway.

She made it to the control room and sat in her chair. She put in her ear piece and turned it on. "They're strapping in" she said to the man beside her. He nodded and started the sequence on his screen. Lila took a deep breath and patched her ear piece into the speakers of Continental Drift. On her screen it showed they were secured in. she took a deep breath and said, "Start the drift."

"Commencing drift in three…two…one." Lila watched the vitals and brain wave patterns on her screen. The brain waves and vitals slowly fell into sync. The drift was a success. Lila was about to stop the drift when she noticed the brain waves fell out of sync. Two brain diagrams came up on her screen. The one on the left was flashing red. "We have a problem" she said.

"They're falling into the drift" the man beside her said.

"Stop it before it's too late and they get stuck in there" she said, remembering her first drift test.

"If we cut them off now they could suffer brain damage."

"Will they come out on their own?"

"It's possible." Lila watched the screen, praying they would come out of it. They had to, not only because if they didn't Lila's head would be on a platter, but _they_ would both be hospitalized. She was in charge of the pick. She picked and it wasn't a good choice. The red flashing stopped and the brain waves were in sync again. "Shut it off" she said.

"Got it" the man beside her said. Lila stood and quickly walked to the loading room. Wes and Jack were just coming out when Lila walked into the room. "What happened in there?" she asked. Wes shook his head and shrugged. "You don't know?" Lila took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice. "We'll try this again after training." They nodded and walked out of the loading room. Lila sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

After lunch in the mess hall, Lila went to Dark Knight's loading room to check on his progress. She walked inside his head and nodded to the worker rewiring things in his control box. "I do not see the point of these tests and repairs. I am not in need of a repair. All of my systems are running and online" Dark Knight's voice came across the speakers.

"We just need to be sure. Humans aren't as trusting in technology that can run itself" she said.

"I have internal and external firewalls to prevent any form of attack on my systems."

"I'll let the boss know that you think you're ready" Lila said.

"Thank you, Lila." Lila chuckled as she left the loading room. Just as she entered the control room sirens blared loudly across the Shatterdome. She quickly got in her seat and brought up the news on her screen. Fiji was reportedly under attack by a Kaiju. "Man, these things get around" the man said beside her, looking at the same thing on his screen.

"It's got to be at least a level four" she said, changing her screen. She pressed on her ear piece after connecting it to the Shatterdome speakers. "Attention, there is a level four Kaiju in Fiji. All River Rat pilots report to your loading room and get in your Jaeger" she said.

"You're sending out _River Rat_?"

"It's the best Jaeger for this job. It's already been used in areas like this, ours haven't" she said. The screen beeped showing they were strapped in. "Control to hanger, we need an immediate taxi for River Rat" she said through her ear piece.

"_Copy that control, commencing taxi of River Rat."_ River Rat was taxied out onto the platform. Two helicopters grappled to the Jaeger and lifted it, carrying it in the direction of Fiji.

In Fiji, the chameleon-like Kaiju tore apart vacation homes and resorts as it made it's way further into the Fiji. People screamed and hid for shelter form the beast as it roared overhead. On the beach, the helicopters dropped River Rat onto the sand. River Rat started for the Kaiju. The Kaiju turned and screeched at the sight of the Jaeger.

It bellowed with anger and ran for it. River Rat stopped and waited for the Kaiju to come at it. The Kaiju jumped forward at the Jaeger. River Rat twisted right and one hand grabbed the Kaiju's tail, the other grabbed it's neck. It stopped the Kaiju and held it in mid-air. River Rat twisted back then launched the Kaiju away from the people, toward the water, then ran for it.

The Kaiju dropped in the water but quickly got back up. It screeched at the incoming Jaeger and threw it's round-ended tail at River Rat once it was close enough. The end of the Kaiju's tail slammed into the Jaeger's shoulder, making a large crater in the metal. Before it could take it's tail back, River Rat grabbed it's tail with his left hand and turned it's right hand into a blade.

It sliced the Kaiju's tail into a nub and threw the end to the side. River Rat grabbed hold of the Kaiju's head and pulled it into a head-lock. With a swift twist, River Rat broke the Kaiju's neck.

In the control room, Lila and the man beside her both watched the live news footage of River Rat and the Kaiju. Lila startled when the Kaiju's neck snapped. "Wow…" the man said.

"Go Israel" Lila said, quietly.

Off the coast of Fiji, River Rat dropped the carcass of the Kaiju into the water. It stood still and the helicopters grappled to it and lifted it. They carried it to the platform and dropped it. River Rat was taxied into the hanger and secured in it's spot.

Lila met the pilots in the loading room. They both took off their helmets and smiled at Lila. "That was amazing" Lila said. Mordechai shrugged. "It was nothing" he said. But his smile said differently. "Go get changed" she said, motioning for them to go. they nodded and left the loading room.


	7. Chapter 7

Lila was in Dark Knight, helping out with the tests and repairs. She finished plugging loose wires into the command control box when Dark Knight spoke. "Lila, I found the 'Kit' Levi Smithson and Raleigh Becket were talking about" he said. A techno-drumbeat started playing over the speakers. The 2008 Knight Rider theme song. Lila sat back and chuckled. "So you did" she said.

"I found it most entertaining to watch."

"You watched it?"

"Yes, I did" he said. To the right, on the front wall, a scene pixelated onto the screen. A black car was driving on a highway, swerving in and out of cars. The screen went from outside shots of the car to the person driving it. They were having a conversation, but it was muted so Lila didn't know what they were saying.

She stood up and crossed her arms across her chest as she watched. The screen showed an outside close up of the car and the opening to the show started playing. It was suddenly un-muted and Lila could hear the theme song again. She watched the whole episode with Dark Knight.

The screen pixelated back to a black wall when it ended. "You really like that?" she asked.

"Yes, I do. The interaction between Michael and Kit remind me of you and me" he said.

"That's very sweet, Knight."

"Thank you, Lila" he said. Lila smiled and left the loading room. She walked to Pentecost's office and knocked twice. "Come in." she opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind her. Pentecost was sitting at his desk reading more reports and files. He looked irritated. "Sir, I came to report the progress on Dark Knight" she said.

"So report."

"Yes, um, he ran a full diagnostic on his systems. Everything checks out."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, sir…I was wondering…what happened to Mako? I mean, I know she was in an accident and everything…but what accident?" she asked. Pentecost looked down at his desk and sighed. He knew she was going to ask some time, but he'd hoped she would've asked later rather than sooner.

He looked back up at her. She was waiting expectantly for him to answer. He sighed and began the story. "It was three years ago. It was a level six Kaiju, the worst I've ever seen," Lila sat in the chair in front of the desk and leaned forward. "Raleigh and Mako were using a different Jaeger because Gypsy Danger hadn't been rebuilt yet—Black Danger. It wasn't our best Jaeger, to say the least." Someone knocked on the door and Pentecost stopped the story. "Come in" he said. The man from the control room popped his head in. "Sorry to interrupt, sir, but the Albanian pilots want to speak with you" he said.

Pentecost sighed and stood. Lila followed suit, disappointed she couldn't hear the rest of the story. Pentecost walked around the desk and followed the man from the control room out. Lila followed them as they walked down the hall to the two women standing by the barracks' entrance.

Lila looked at her tablet for their names. In English their names are Victoria and Calera. "Do they speak English?" Pentecost asked her quietly.

"Yes sir, they do" she said. The two women both had their arms crossed and scowls on their faces. Lila stepped forward. "Hello, my name is Lila. I'm the pilot liaison, and this is-"

"We know who he is" Victoria said, abruptly.

"So, what's the problem?" Lila asked, looking between them.

"We cannot live under these conditions," Calera said. "It's pitiful."

"Tell me specifics and I'll see if I can fix it for you" Lila said.

"Really? I thought it would be harder than that" Victoria said.

"We need rooms that aren't next to the Canadians" Calera said.

"Okay. Lila, show these girls to the third-level barracks" Pentecost said, turning around to walk back to his office. He started walking back down the hallway and Lila led the two women to the third level of Barracks. She gave them each a key. "Victoria your room is here," she said, gesturing to the room on the left. "And Calera, your room is here."

"Thank you" Victoria said. They split off and walked into their rooms. Lila sighed and walked back to Pentecost's office. She knocked on the door. "Come in." she opened the door and walked in. she shut the door and turned back toward the desk. "You didn't finish" she said.

Pentecost sighed and motioned for her to sit. She sat down and set her tablet on her lap. Pentecost leaned back in his chair. "They didn't stand a chance against that Kaiju. It was big and smart, and countered their every move. It ripped Mako's half of the head off, taking her with it. There was no way to save her after that," he said, words filled with sadness. "The reason the Kaiju was able to get her half instead of Raleigh's was because she sacrificed herself for him. Because she cared."

Lila didn't know what to say. She wanted to know what had happened, but now that she knew, she wished she never asked. She never knew why Raleigh was so guarded about everything, until Pentecost told her what happened. She felt like crying in a corner. Pentecost leaned forward and said, "I don't want any relationships going on amongst pilots. Because you'll only end up like Mako."

Those words made Lila wonder what 'relationship' he was talking about. Sure, Levi was pushing for a relationship, but that doesn't mean they had one. And she wondered how he knew about it. "That seems a bit specific, sir," Lila said, curiously. Pentecost sat back again. "It sounded like you were saying I had a relationship. Where you got that from I have no idea."

"Levi came to my office yesterday. He expressed his concerns about you piloting Dark Knight" he said.

"That doesn't mean-"

"It's obvious you two have something! And I want it to end before anyone else gets hurt, got it?" he asked, sternly. Lila picked up her tablet and stood. She walked to the door. "Perfectly understood, sir" she said, briefly looking back before leaving. She shut the door behind her and walked to Levi's room.

She knocked a few times and stepped back. The door opened and Levi was standing shirtless in the doorway. "You have some serious explain to do" Lila said.

"Oh?"

"Why would you go to Pentecost like that? Why?"

"Whoa, slow down. I was worried about you, that's all."

"So you went to my boss?" she was practically shouting now, she was so angry. "I'm sorry, Lila. I didn't think it was such a big deal" he said, calmly.

"That's the thing, you don't think! You haven't changed at all. You still just do what you want, no matter the consequences, as long as those consequences don't hurt you!" Lila shouted. Angry tears were falling down her cheeks now. "I thought…I thought you were different, I really did. But you're not." when she turned to walk away, she saw Raleigh standing by his room watching. She quickly walked to her room and locked herself inside.


	8. Chapter 8

Lila checked her schedule on her tablet as she walked to the lab. It's been a long time since she's been down to the lab, but Dr. Geiszler insisted she be there. She sighed as she finally came to the lab at the end of a hall. She walked in and looked around but she didn't see anyone. "Dr. Geiszler?" she called. It was quiet a minute.

Behind a cluttered desk, Dr. Geiszler stood up abruptly, knocking things off the desk. Lila startled at the sudden movement. "Miss Archer, you came, great," he walked around the desk and Lila noticed he was wearing some kind of metal hat. He walked across the lab to a larger computer. "You are never going to believe what I found." Lila sighed and walked over to join him at the computer.

On the screen was a 3D model of what looked to Lila like the Breach. Dr. Geiszler zoomed in on the model. "This is not what it looks like, this is a second Breach. It seems to have been there the whole time and we just missed it, and for some reason nothing came out of it, and-"

"Dr. Geiszler."

"Right, sorry, rambling. Anyway, this Breach is—can you guess where it is?" he asked, looking at Lila. Lila didn't say anything and Dr. Geiszler continued. "It's in the Bermuda Triangle! How crazy is that?"

"What are you saying, Doctor? If nothing came out of it then why are you studying it?"

"But you see, this Breach, it's complex. It has layers and layers of ground between see-floor-level and the actual Breach. And the funny thing is, if something wanted to come out of it, it could, it could just waltz on up and say 'Hola' if it wanted to, but it hasn't. Which is the reason I'm studying it, because nothing has come out of it, but the Kaiju have been coming from somewhere" he said.

"So, where do you think they're coming from if not from there?"

"Another Breach."

"_Another_ Breach? A third Breach in a period of five years?"

"Well, think about it, all of the recent Kaiju have come from an estimated point," he changed the screen so it was a map of the waters west of Australia. "Of three hundred miles south of New Britain."

"Have you actually found a Breach in that area?" she asked.

"No…but I will, it's only a matter of time before-" his voice was cut off by loud sirens. "I have to go" Lila said. She hurried out of the lab and started for the control room.

Lila hurried into the control room and, without sitting down, changed all the screens to the flagged news channel. All of the screens came up with a foreign news network from New Britain. "Damn it…he was right" Lila said, quietly. She sat in her chair. "What's the level on this one?" she asked.

"It's a level not on our scales."

"Then just looking at it what level would you say it is?"

"Uh, I don't know, six or seven?"

"Oh my god" Lila said under her breath. She put in her ear piece and patched it into the Shatterdome speakers. "All Jaeger pilots report to the loading rooms, we have a level seven Kaiju. We need all of you" she said into it. She dropped her ear piece on her chair as she stood and ran out of the control room.

She ran down the hall to Dark Knight's loading room. The technicians just finished their work and were heading out when she entered. "Is he online?" when they didn't respond, she said, "Is he operational?" they nodded and she began suiting up.

One by one, all of the Jaeger's began taxiing out. Gold Star, Death's Keeper, River Rat, Dark Knight, the newly repaired Gypsy Danger, and Continental Drift. They all were lifted by helicopters and began the flight to New Britain (An island North-West of Australia).

In the control room, Pentecost stood by Lila's empty chair watching the screens. News footage was playing of a Kaiju heading to New Britain. The camera shifted showing two more Kaiju popping up above the water.

In the lab, Dr. Geiszler was profusely typing on his computer. On his screen he searched the area south of New Britain for another Breach. He used an inferred scanner to find heat signatures. An immense amount of heat was coming from an area that, on his screen, showed nothing there but the bottom of the ocean. He isolated that spot and discarded the rest of the map. He created a 3D model on his computer of that area and used an X-ray tool on his computer. It changed the area from just dirt to a rip in the ground—a Breach.

Off the coast of New Britain, the Jaeger's were all dropped several miles from shore. There were now seven Kaiju, all heading to the same place—New Britain. There was something about New Britain that was different for the Kaiju. They didn't notice all of the Jaeger's behind them; they just kept walking toward the shore.

Inside Dark Knight, _"How the hell are there seven?"_ Levi asked.

"_Who cares? Let's talk strategy"_ Claus said.

"I believe the saying is 'divide and conquer'" Knight said.

"_Sounds good to me"_ Raleigh said. Continental Drift and Death's Keeper charged passed Dark Knight toward the Kaiju. Gold Star hesitantly started for a Kaiju to the left and River Rat started for one on the right. Lila was frozen, she couldn't move. She was letting her nerves get the best of her. After a minute of no movement Raleigh's voice came over her speakers. _"What are you thinking, Lila? What's going on?"_ he asked.

"There's so many" she said.

"_Remember last time? just do that again. Knight, help me out." _

"Yes, Lila, do it again," Knight said. "You're not alone." With Knight's last words Lila straightened and took a deep breath. "Let's kick some ass" she said.

"_Atta girl"_ Raleigh said, just before Gypsy Danger started for a Kaiju.

In the lab, Dr. Geiszler enhanced the model's quality to get a better look at the Breach. He squinted at it to see something small and black coming from the Breach not once, twice, but three times. He zoomed in and enhanced the quality again. Coming from the Breach were more Kaiju. Dr. Geiszler quickly ran from the lab.

Off the coast of New Britain, Gold Star aimed it's sonic cannon at the Kaiju in front of it and shot it several times. It fell back, and a moment later stood back up again.  
River Rat formed it's blade and slashed at the Kaiju it was fighting. It sliced through the Kaiju's abdomen and the two halves fell in opposite directions. Another Kaiju lurched for the Jaeger and latched onto it's left side, biting at it's head.  
Death's Keeper stood a few feet from the Kaiju's and was shooting it's sonic cannon at every Kaiju it could, trying to weaken them so they would be easier to fight.  
Continental Drift hit the Kaiju with it's left fist and stabbed it with a blade with it's right hand. The Kaiju whipped around it's tail at lightning speed and hit the Jaeger's torso, sending it crashing back several feet into the water.  
Gypsy Danger formed a sword with it's right hand and slashed at the Kaiju's tail as it whipped by. It cut the tail off the Kaiju and the Kaiju screeched angrily. It slashed it's right hand at the Jaeger's head. Gypsy Danger countered, blocking with it's left and stabbing under with it's right. Disoriented, the Kaiju backed away from the Jaeger and screeched halfheartedly.

In the control room, Dr. Geiszler ran into the control room and shouted, "I found the Breach!" Pentecost turned around with an eyebrow raised. "I found it! And more Kaiju are coming, sir."

Off the coast of New Britain, Dark Knight sidestepped a Kaiju's tail and shot at it with it's right sonic cannon. The shot hit the Kaiju but didn't phase it at all. The Kaiju bellowed a fierce cry and launched itself at the Jaeger. Dark Knight's right arm turned into a shield with small, sharp spikes coating every inch of the metal and held it up at the last second. The Kaiju slammed into the shield and screeched painfully. Knight pushed hard on the shield, pushing the Kaiju back, into the water. The shield quickly deformed into it's arm and the left hand turned into a sword. Dark Knight held the sword with both hands and slammed the blade down into the Kaiju. The Kaiju screeched and then fell silent. Knight pulled the sword out of the carcass and deformed it into his arm.  
Gold Star stumbled back after a Kaiju hit it's chest. The Kaiju proceeded on them, hitting them over and over, until a massive dent was sparking in the chest. The Kaiju wrapped it's tail around the Jaeger's head and tightened, slowly squeezing it until it caved in. the Kaiju ripped it off and swallowed the broken head.  
Death's Keeper shot missiles from it's chest at a Kaiju. They all hit it's eyes and it stumbled backward, bellowing. The Kaiju latched onto the Jaeger's shoulders and lifted it. It threw the Jaeger at the shore. Death's Keeper slammed into the sand and skidded, destroying houses along the way as it went deeper into the island.

Gypsy Danger shot at the Kaiju that threw Death's Keeper. The Kaiju turned it's attention to the Jaeger and screeched. It started for Gypsy Danger. At five feet away, Dark Knight clashed into the Kaiju heading for Gypsy Danger, taking it east with him. the Kaiju slammed into the water, Dark Knight on top, and it skidded several yards. Gypsy Danger turned and a Kaiju collided with it, knocking it back, into the water.

A row of several Kaiju popped up in the water and started for the Jaeger's. River Rat saw this row and ran at it with a sword drawn in each hand, slashing and cutting. He slammed into the line and sliced three in half before a Kaiju whipped him with it's tail, sending it back a few feet.  
Continental Drift joined River Rat and together they slashed at the Kaiju that kept coming at them. Three made it passed them and ran for Gypsy Danger and Dark Knight.  
Death's Keeper slowly got up and started running toward the fight again.

The row of Kaiju was slowly eliminated, one-by-one. But three Kaiju still remained. Gypsy Danger shot at the incoming Kaiju while Dark Knight started for them. The first one to come close to Dark Knight slashed at him with it's claws. Knight formed a blade then cut the Kaiju's head clean off, and continued toward the others. The second Kaiju screeched and lurched for the Jaeger. Dark Knight formed a sword and cut the Kaiju in mid-air sending three pieces of dead Kaiju into the water. Dark Knight ran for the final Kaiju ahead of him. He skidded to a stop in front of the Kaiju, his blade ready, and sent the sword through the Kaiju's heart. The Kaiju screeched and fell limply off the blade.

Inside Dark Knight, Lila was breathing quickly with nerves going crazy. "Knight, why did you just do that?" she asked, panting.

"I did what needed to be done" he replied simply.

"No, this isn't like you. I had no part in that! I just watched!" she said, starting to freak out. In was quiet inside Dark Knight. The only sound was of Lila's heavy breathing. The interior of his head turned read in splotchy spurts, making everything shine red. "Knight, what's going on?" Lila asked. Without a word, the hatch on his head opened and a large metal hand reached in. it grabbed her and pulled her out of him. Dark Knight looked at her in his hand a moment, and then threw her to the shore.

Gypsy Danger saw the whole thing, and when Lila went flying toward the shore, it started after her. Just before she could hit the ground, Gypsy Danger's hand caught her and gently laid her on the sand, the water lapping at her ankles. The Jaeger automatically turned on Dark Knight, who was now completely crimson.

**To Be Continued… **


	9. Chapter 9

Dark Knight, from head to toe, was completely red. He turned toward Gypsy Danger and gave a half wave before turning back and walking away. He walked until his head was underwater and they couldn't see him anymore. Gypsy Danger kneeled on the sand and Raleigh and Levi climbed out the top hatch. They began climbing down the face of the Jaeger.

In the lab, Dr. Geiszler put his model onto a tablet and ran out of the lab. He ran into the control room and, before he could say anything, he saw the news footage playing in front of Pentecost. The news footage from New Britain of Dark Knight throwing Lila to the sand and Gypsy Danger reaching out to catch her. "Oh my god…did that actually happen?" he asked. Pentecost sighed regretfully and nodded. "Wh-is she okay? Did she-"

"We don't know yet."

**On the shore of New Britain**, Raleigh put his ear to Lila's chest to listen for a heartbeat. There was a very faint thumping that was un-even and hitching. He sat back and saw her left arm was broken. The bone was piercing through the skin in two pieces. Levi gently touched her face, which was badly bruised, and said, "Lila? Lila, come on, wake up." She didn't move and he gently shook her shoulders. "Lila, wake up" he said.

"Levi, she's not gonna-"

"She's going to wake up!" Levi shouted at him.

"She was thrown from a Jaeger over two-thousand feet away, do you really think she'll just wake up? We need to get her to a hospital" Raleigh said, calm but stern. Levi nodded and Raleigh stood. "I'm gonna go get help, stay with her" he said, before running up the beach. Levi took Lila's hand and kissed her knuckles.

Raleigh ran to the first house that wasn't demolished and banged on the door frantically. A short, Asian woman answered the door. She saw his Jaeger pilot suit and she stepped back. "Ma'am do you have a phone?" Raleigh asked. The women nodded and led him to the small kitchen where a phone hung on the wall by the sink. "Thank you" he said to the woman, before picking up the phone. He dialed 9-1-1. _"This is nine-one-one what is your emergency?"_

"My name is Raleigh Becket, I'm a Jaeger pilot. Another Jaeger pilot was thrown from her Jaeger and she needs help."

"_Where are you, sir?"_

"I'm on the south beach in New Britain" he said.

"_Okay, sir, I'm sending an ambulance."_ He hung the phone back on the wall and ran out of the house, back to the beach.

**In the control room**, the man that sits in the chair beside Lila's said, "Sir, Raleigh just made a nine-one-one call from the south beach in New Britain."

"Get a helicopter ready" Pentecost said.

"Yes, sir." The man began readying a helicopter and Pentecost left the control room.

**On the shore of New Britain**, Raleigh knelt beside Lila. "I called nine-one-one, they should be here in a few minutes" he said. Levi was barely listening. He was intently staring at Lila with a concerned look on his face. "She's gonna be fine. This girl's gone through hell and back, she's not gonna give up now" Raleigh said. Levi just nodded with a hollow look in his eyes.

A few minutes later and ambulance drove onto the sand and parked next to them. Two paramedics got out and rushed to them with a medical bag. Raleigh stood and backed up as one of the paramedics started examining her arm. The other put a V-collar on her neck to stabilize her. They got her onto a back board and lifted her to the ambulance.

Levi rode in the ambulance along with them to the hospital. They pulled up in the ER drop-off and quickly pulled her out on a stretcher. They took her inside and Levi followed. The paramedics took her into the ER and Levi found a chair in the waiting room to sit in, and sat. He ran a hand over his face and sighed.

**About an hour later**, Raleigh, Pentecost, the River Rat and Continental drift pilots, Dr. Geiszler, and the Death's Keeper pilots all came to the ER waiting room. Levi stood as they approached. "Any news on how Lila's doing?" Pentecost asked. Levi shook his head. "No, sir." Pentecost sighed and sat in a chair across from him. Raleigh gave Levi a pair of pants and a shirt to change into. "Go change, I'll come get you if someone comes out" he said. Levi nodded and headed to the bathroom. All of the pilots sat except Raleigh, who leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

Pentecost stood and walked to Raleigh. "Who gave the order to get Lila instead of Dark Knight?" he asked, quietly.

"I did, sir" Raleigh said. Pentecost was taken aback by that. He expected him to say Levi did, but it was him instead. "You'll explain yourself when we get back to the Shatterdome" Pentecost said. Raleigh nodded and he saw Levi walking back to the waiting room. Pentecost sat back down as Levi did. They waited for a long time before someone came out. A nurse in a yellow nurse-shirt stopped at the edge of the waiting room. "Are you all Lila's family?" she asked, glancing around at all of them waiting. Pentecost stood and walked to the nurse. He simply nodded. "Lila suffered a concussion and internal damage. She was bleeding internally when she got here, but we sealed off the cut and stitched her up. She won't be able to be piloting Jaeger's for a while…six months maybe? I'll ask the doctor about a more accurate time. But you can come back and see her, three at a time" she said.

The nurse led Pentecost, Raleigh, and Levi through the doors she came from and down a hall passed several doors. The nurse finally stopped at room three-twenty and opened the door. She held the door while they walked in. Lila was awake, propped up into a sitting position with pillows. She smiled weakly at them as the nurse left.

Levi sat in the chair beside her bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked her. She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them again. "A bit dazed…and confused" she said.

"You took a pretty hard fall out there. Do you know why Dark Knight tossed you?" she shook her head then stopped with a wince. "He just went crazy…he turned red, and…threw me out" she said, sadly. She looked down at her left arm in a sling. Raleigh and Pentecost exchanged glances, and Pentecost stepped forward. "You said he turned red?"

"Yeah…"

"What did he say?"

"He said…he did what needed to be done," she was quiet a minute before speaking again. "Please don't hurt him; I don't think it was his fault."

"How could it _no_t be his _fault_? He tossed you across the water to hit the beach and _die_" Raleigh said, firmly. His obscure tone made her look at him. Her eyes had started to fill with water and she wiped it away with her right wrist. Pentecost looked at Raleigh with an almost-glare-look and Raleigh walked out of the room. _What was wrong with him?_ She wondered.

**After everyone had visited**, Raleigh stepped back in the room. Lila patted the bed beside her and he sat down. "What's going on?" she asked, softly.

"You could have died out there, Lila."

"I know that, but there's something else, isn't there?"

"Just get some rest, okay?" she nodded and he kissed her forehead gently before leaving. That left her wondering even more what was wrong with him.


	10. Chapter 10

**T****hree weeks** after the incident with Dark Knight, Lila was finally back on the job. She wasn't a pilot anymore, but she was still an assistant/pilot-liaison. She sat at a table in the mess hall where Raleigh and Levi were sitting on the other side. "You look miffed" Levi observed.

"I hate this" she said, gesturing at her arm in a sling.

"You'll be out of it soon. Don't worry about it" Raleigh said.

"I can't do _anything_ anymore by myself. I can't use my tablet unless I'm sitting down, I can hardly use my computer in the control room, I can barely even _shower_ by myself" she said, annoyed. Levi wiggled his eyebrows a few times and Lila scoffed. "Will you please hit him?" she asked Raleigh. He did as she asked and hit Levi's arm, who just chuckled.

Dr. Geiszler hurried into the mess hall and searched the crowd of people. He found Lila and practically ran to her table. "Miss Archer, I have something in the lab you're going to want to see" he said.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Just come look" he said, pulling her up from her seat. She followed him to the lab. They walked in and Lila stopped in the doorway. On the 3D model next to the computer was a model of Dark Knight. She instantly felt depressed at the sight of her old friend. She joined the doctor at the model.

"I think I know what happened to Dark Knight," he said, changing the model so it was a model of Knight's command control box. "A flash drive was entered into his command control box at precisely two o'clock the day he went rogue. It uploaded a file to his system that held a Trojan horse, in which he was infected with, but didn't detect because this virus was scary complex. When he turned red, that was the operator of the virus activating whatever he uploaded in his system to take control."

"So it wasn't his fault, it was whoever owned that flash drive" Lila said.

"Correct. Now I ran a check on who was working at two o'clock on that day, and no one was reportedly on duty at that time, so whoever it was-"

"Didn't belong here," she finished. "Do you have any idea where he is now?"

"I've been trying to track him using every device possible but I can't locate him. Which means they either ripped out his tracker, used him for parts, or have a _really_ good cloaking device" he said. She nodded and started to walk out. "Miss Archer?" she stopped and turned back toward the doctor. "You should know he had no control over his motor functions when he threw you out" he said.

"Thank you, Dr. Geiszler" she said, before turning and leaving the lab. She walked to Pentecost's office and knocked a few times on the door. "Come in." she opened the door, walked inside, and closed it behind her. "Sir, Dr. Geiszler found the reasoning for Dark Knight's malfunction" she said.

"And what is it?"

"He was infected with a virus that was embedded in his system. It wasn't activated until minutes before he went rogue" she said.

"When was he infected?"

"When he was being repaired, sir."

"I want you to see if we have surveillance of Dark Knight's loading room from the control room, I'll meet you there if you find anything" he said. She nodded and left his office. She hurried to the control room and sat at her chair. She accessed the cameras mounted by the loading rooms and singled out Knight's. She started the footage from one o'clock and hit play. She watched the footage until the two o'clock mark and she hit pause not a second passed two.

She looked over the people passing by and standing by that area. She didn't see anyone out of place, so she switched cameras to get a different angle. As soon as she switched cameras, she noticed a shadow-figure in Knight's head near the command control box. She zoomed in as far as possible and ran the image through several filters to make it a better shot. Once it was done a face was visible. She didn't recognize the man at all.

Lila set the picture on Pentecost's desk. "He has only five hundred aliases and none of them point to where he could've taken Knight" she said, as Pentecost examined the photo.

"Maybe Dr. Geiszler can dig up some more information" he said. She nodded and left the office and started for the lab.

Lila walked into the lab and found Dr. Geiszler working on a new 3D model of Dark Knight. He kept making it change from black to red and then restarting it. He glanced at Lila then looked back at the model. "Miss Archer, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"I think we're missing something" she said.

"Oh?"

"If Knight knew he was being taken over when it happened how long would he have to leave a clue for us?"

"Based on my calculations he'd have about forty-five seconds."

"I knew it," she said. "Can you access any data from Knight when he was here?"

"Theoretically, yes."

"Then I need you to find something."

"What?"

"Knight kept listening to the Knight Rider theme song, and it's only forty-two seconds long," Dr. Geiszler looked at her with a I'm-a-mad-genious-'cause-i-figured-it-all-out look as she said _Forty-Two Seconds_. "He would've had time to re-write the code in it to hide a message." He quickly started doing things on his computer and Lila stared at the model as it changed from black to red then started again. "I have the file!" he said. "Aaaand it's encrypted."

"Can you _un-_encrypt it?"

"Can a bird fly?" he asked, sarcastically. She gave him a look and he said, "Sorry, focusing on this." He continued to try and decrypt the file. Once he did, the theme song started playing. "Hey, that's kind of catchy" he said.

"Can you find a message?"

"Hold on…I found something but it's just a series of numbers. I could try to translate it into words but I don't know what code he's using. It could take days, maybe even weeks."

"We don't have weeks. Try using the date when I first piloted Knight" she suggested. He tried using that date to match it with the code to create letters but it didn't work. "Nada" he said.

"Um…try my birth date." He typed it in and tried it for a match but it didn't work either. He shook his head and she sighed. "Come on, it's got to be something obvious that I'm just not thinking of…" she turned and slowly started walking as she thought. She stopped, snapped her fingers, and hurried back to the computer. "The date he and I watched Knight Rider" she said. As he typed it in he said, "You watched Knight Rider?"

"Yeah, so?"

"The older series is way better then the two-thousand eight series, that's all I'm sayin'" he commented. She rolled her eyes and watched the computer screen. It blinked a match to the code and started deciphering the number code using that date. "Act…activate m-my beacon using E P one S E one code," he read aloud. "What code is that?"

"_Episode_ one, _season_ one. He's linking everything to Knight Rider."

"Right, I totally knew that" he said, quietly. He typed it into the computer and searched for Knight using the hidden beacon from Dark Knight's control box. "We should have his location in a few hours" he said.

"Thanks" she said. She walked around the desk and walked out of the lab. She walked down the hallway, toward Pentecost's office, and stopped at his door the same time Raleigh did. There was tension in the air that was so think you could reach out and touch it. They hadn't spoken much since the incident. It was kind of awkward because of how things were left. They just stared at each other, waiting for the other person to speak first. "We'll have Dark Knight's location in a few hours" Lila said, timidly.

"That's great" Raleigh said.

"He actually put the code to his tracking beacon in the Knight Rider theme song" she said, with a half chuckled that came out awkwardly. They stood quietly a moment. "Could we talk later?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure" he said, a little too quickly. She nodded and walked into the office with him following behind.


	11. Chapter 11

Lila sat down carefully so she wouldn't bump her arm and looked across the empty table at Raleigh, who was sitting quietly. They had agreed to meet in the mess hall when no one would be there, so they could talk and not be overheard. "Can I ask you a question that may or may not be personal?" she asked. He nodded silently and she continued. "Why didn't you go after Knight? You could've but you stayed at the beach…" she said.

"You were seriously injured, Lila. I wasn't just going to leave you there to die" he said.

"And what about at the hospital?"

"What about it?"

"You came in after everyone else left. And the most confusing part about that visit was you kissing my forehead before you left. And, correct me if I'm wrong, we've never been that close. So why the kiss?"

"Because I care about your well-being. A lot of people here do." Lila sighed in frustration. He wasn't getting it. Or he was just going around the question. "But I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about you," she said. "And ever since then you've been sort of avoiding me."

"Lila, if you're implying that you think I have feelings for you then you'd be completely-"

"Wrong."

"-right." Lila's eyes widened. "Did…did you just say I'd be right?" she asked. He simply nodded. "But I think Levi's got dibs so…" he said, his words trailing off.

"Levi? No, he's…" she sighed. "He's not exactly on my radar, so to speak. I mean, we're sort of friends, I guess. But he's-"

"Immature, selfish?" Lila chuckled. "So you've noticed" she said.

"How could I not? I spend most of my day with him." They were quiet a moment and Lila stood. Raleigh stood just after she did. "I should…probably get back to work before Pentecost notices I'm gone" Lila said, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"Before you go…I'm sorry if you thought I was avoiding you," he said. He took a step or two forward. "I don't think I'd be capable of doing that willingly." Lila took a step or two closer. "I don't think I could either" she said, quietly. She put her right hand on his cheek and they looked into each other's eyes. He leaned down the few inches that separated them and kissed her, first lightly then deeply. She kissed him back and he pulled her against him. Her heart thudded against her chest as his hand went through her hair.

Levi walked down the hallway and passed the mess hall and something caught his eye. He stopped and turned around. He looked around the corner into the mess hall and saw Raleigh and Lila kissing. Anger boiled inside of him. He walked across the mess hall, pulled Raleigh away from Lila, and slammed his fist into Raleigh's jaw.

Raleigh stumbled backward and touched his jaw. There was a small cut by his lip that was bleeding. "Levi! What are you doing?" Lila shouted. Levi turned toward Lila. "Why are you kissing him?" he asked, angrily.

"Why do people kiss each other? Think about it!"

"You can_not_ be serious!"

"You can't go around hitting guys that you see kissing me, just because they're not _you_!" she shouted at him. Levi turned and left the mess hall. Lila saw the cut just below Raleigh's lip and walked over to him. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine" he said.

"You're bleeding," she said. "Sit, I'll be right back." she walked to the kitchen and Raleigh sat at the nearest table, facing the aisle. Lila walked back over with a damp rag. She stood in front of Raleigh and gently touched the rag to the cut. He winced. "Sorry" she said.

"For what?"

"Levi hitting you."

"It wasn't your fault."

"Yes it was." He grabbed her wrist, making her looks into his eyes. "It's not your fault. It was his," he said. He let go of her wrist and stood up. "There was nothing you could've done." She nodded and he kissed her forehead before leaving the mess hall. Lila sat the rag on the table and sat down on the bench. She sighed and closed her eyes. As soon as she closed them, she saw Dark Knight. It wasn't the Dark Knight that she'd seen before. He was the red color he'd been at New Britain, but little parts of him were black. She opened her eyes and a thought came to her. "He's fixing himself…"


	12. Chapter 12

Lila woke with a start. There were no sirens, no flashing lights. But her heart pounded like a rabbit's. She sat up and swung her legs off the bed. Her dream—more like a nightmare—was unlike any she'd ever had. She didn't want to remember anything from that dream, but she needed to, to make sense of it. The one thing she knew about it that wasn't insane was Knight.

She shook as she stood and walked to her door. She looked through the peep hole and saw it was still dark. She glanced back at her clock, _3:00AM_. She didn't care what time it was—she needed to talk to someone. She opened her door and walked out into the dark hallway. She thought back to a time when the lights were on and started walking. Her nerves had her on edge, jumping at every noise and sound.

She finally reached her destination and hesitantly knocked on the door. A few minutes later the light turned on and the door swung open. Raleigh stood in the doorway wearing nothing but a pair of pants. He glanced back at his clock then looked at Lila. She was shaking just barely visibly. "I know it's late but, um, I needed to talk to someone and Levi's not really an option and I can't find my way to another level…" she said.

"It's okay. Come in" he said, stepping aside. She walked in and he closed the door. "What happened?" he asked. "You're shaking." He walked around and stood in front of her. "This is gonna sound really cheesy…I had a dream, but it wasn't _really_ a dream—I think" she said. He raised an eyebrow at her and she elaborated. "It was really real and it felt real too. I've never had dreams like that until now. And it was about Knight. I saw what he did after he left New Britain—to some degree—I didn't see where he is now but…" she shook her head. "It was just…the things whoever is controlling him made him do…it was awful."

Raleigh pulled her into his arms and held her. Her eyes were filling with tear as she remembered what happened in the dream. "It was so terrible…" she said, starting to cry.

"Shhh, it's okay" he said, quietly.

"Why make him do those things?" she asked, through the tears.

"I don't know. We'll find him and the man that took him, and we'll find out why."

"I think he's in trouble, Raleigh, and I can't do a damn _thing_ about it. I feel so helpless" she said. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked in her eyes. "We're gonna get him back, Lila," he said. She nodded and wiped at her eyes. "It's all gonna be alright, okay?" she nodded and fished wiping her eyes. It was then she noticed the scars up Raleigh's left arm. She'd never seen them before, she'd _heard_ of them, but never saw them. She absentmindedly touched one of the scars. Her fingers followed the line of the scar across his arm.

Raleigh was quiet as she touched them. He didn't let anyone see them, let alone touch them. But this was _Lila_, so he made an exception. "Did it hurt?" she asked, quietly. He silently nodded and she looked back at the scars. She looked back at him and he looked from her fingers on his scars to her eyes. There was a depth to his eyes that made her shudder under his gaze.

She saw all of the hurt, the self-blame, and the sorrow that they held. She wanted to make it go away but she didn't know how. She rose up on tip toe and kissed his lips softly. He kissed her back with a passion that made her knees weaken. He put his arms around her waist and pulled her against his bare chest. The kiss quickened and deepened all the same. Both their hearts were racing.

Raleigh's alarm clock went off and they both startled, stepping apart. Raleigh sighed and turned off his clock. "I should get back to my room" Lila said. Raleigh nodded, a bit disappointed, and she left his room, closing the door behind her. Lila made it back to her room and she turned on the light as she shut the door.

A scene flashed by her eyes—Knight's black metal pixelating a bright, vibrant red—and she felt an immense pain in her temples. She winces and stumbled to her bed. She sat down and another sharp pain hit her, much stronger than the last one, and she cried out in pain as her hand went to her head. More scenes of the same flashed by her eyes as she looked at her room. She heard a metallic, muffled wheezing—almost a whimper. She looked around but didn't see anything, and another sharp pain hit her. She felt something warm by her nose and felt where the heat came from. She pulled her hand away and her fingers had blood on them.

Another pain hit her and she felt dizzy afterward. She fought to keep her eyes open, but after a few minutes, she collapsed to the floor—unconscious.

At two o'clock, lunch time, Raleigh was in the mess hall. He looked around but didn't see Lila. She was always there on time—and usually the first one there. But this time, something wasn't right. He left the mess hall and started for the barracks. He walked down the hall and stopped at Lila's door. He knocked and the door opened slightly. It opened by itself, and that worried him. He slowly pushed open the door and stepped inside.

He looked around and saw Lila was lying on the floor, her eye lids blinking while closed rapidly. He rushed to her side and knelt down. "Lila? Lila, wake up," he said, as he gently shook her shoulders. "Lila, wake up." Her eyes flew open but they were white and glazed over. "Oh my god…Lila, what happened to you? Lila?" she wasn't responsive to anything. He scooped her up into his arms and carried her out of the room.

He carried her out of the barracks and just turned the corner when Pentecost was walking past. He stopped and looked at Raleigh. "Sir, something's happened to her. Look at her eyes" Raleigh said, standing in front of Pentecost. Pentecost saw her eyes were white and motioned for him to follow as he turned around and walked the other way. Raleigh followed Pentecost with Lila limp in his arms.

Pentecost led him to the lab. Dr. Geiszler looked up from his computer and saw Lila in Raleigh's arms. His eyes widened and he ran over to them. "What happened to her? Oh my _god_! Her eyes are _white_! WH-what did she do?" he asked.

"I found her like this. Is there any chance you can find out what's going on in her head?" Raleigh asked him. Dr. Geiszler ran to a metal table next to his computer and pushed everything off onto the floor. "Put her there!" he said, running further into the lab. Raleigh walked to the table and gently laid her down. Dr. Geiszler came back with some chords that were wrapped around a rectangular computer chip. He put the end of the chords—that had suction cups on them—on her forehead and plugged the rectangle into his computer. He started fiercely typing on his computer.

A 3D brain came up on the 3D model screen. Then it changed to a blurry video. It was Knight lying on his back, his red changing constantly from red to black, and he was jolting every few minutes. Lila jolted every time Knight did in the video. "What the hell is going on?" Pentecost asked.

"When Lila drifted with Knight, Knight downloaded something into her brain, connecting them both even when they weren't drifting" Dr. Geiszler said in awe.

"How do we stop it?" Raleigh asked.

"You don't. Not unless you fix Knight."

"Did you get his location?" Pentecost asked.

"Yes! He's in…" Dr. Geiszler typed at his computer. "He's in New Britain. I have the specific coordinates…"

"Good, send them to the control room ASAP" Pentecost said, as he turned and walked out of the lab.

Raleigh looked down at Lila lying limp on the table. He kissed her forehead and left the lab. He ran to catch up with Pentecost. "Sir-"

"I'm sending you to New Britain," Pentecost said. "Get to the loading room."


	13. Chapter 13

"No, sir, we can't send Jaeger's to New Britain" Dr. Geiszler said.

"And why is that?" Pentecost said, starting to get annoyed.

"Because they'll be too big and get picked up on their radar, then they'll just move him. The best approach to this is sending in one guy with the anti-virus flash drive I made."

"I'm not sending in a lone man."

"It'll work! I'm telling you, the tech is sound. He'd just have to get in fast enough to not be detected."

"And then what? He'd be defenseless."

"No, because if he gets in fast enough, then Knight will be fully operationally" Dr. Geiszler said. Pentecost sighed, irritated. It did make more sense to send in a person instead of a Jaeger, but it would be safer with a Jaeger. Lila's life was on the line, so whatever decision Pentecost made, it had to be the right one. "Alright…we'll send one person to revive Dark Knight" he said.

**An hour later**, the helicopter landed on the west side of New Britain—an old string of factories that had closed down and rusted. The door swung open and Raleigh jumped out. The helicopter ascended and flew back toward the Shatterdome, leaving Raleigh alone on the ground. The ear piece he wore buzzed. _"Go right about four yards"_ Dr. Geiszler said, through his ear. He followed Geiszler's directions, walking right four yards. _"Left"_ the doctor said. Raleigh walked around an old factory building to the left and kept walking. _"Whoa, stop! Face left,"_ Raleigh did as he said and faced the building. _"Look down; there should be triangle in a square on the grass."_ He looked down at the grass and, as Dr. Geiszler said, there was a triangle in a square burned into the grass close to the building. "Okay, found it. Now what?" he asked.

"_Pull up that square of grass. There should be a little handle."_ Raleigh knelt down and pulled at the edge of the grass. The far side popped up and he pulled it back. A little blue handle was on a piece of metal in the dirt. _"Turn it left"_ Dr. Geiszler instructed. Raleigh did as instructed and turned the handle left. He jumped back as the grass beneath him moved right, revealing a dark tunnel with a ladder leading down into the earth. _"Go down."_

He climbed down the ladder in complete darkness. Finally after a long time of climbing down, a dim red light lit a hallway as the ladder came to a stop. He hopped off the ladder and his feet hit the cement floor. He turned around and looked down both left and right. _"Go Right."_ He turned right and walked down the cement tunnel. It seemed to go on forever, deeper and deeper into the earth.

Finally, the hallway ended at a larger open room full of crates. _"Knight's coordinates say he's only a few yards from your position"_ Pentecost said, through the ear piece.

"I don't see anything but crates in here" Raleigh said quietly, as he walked into the open room. All the crates had the triangle-square imprinted on them. Raleigh walked to near the back when he finally saw Knight, behind a wall of crates. He walked around the wall and saw all of him. Knight was still mostly red, but there were splotches of black here and there. "I found him…now what do I do?" Raleigh asked, walking toward the Jaeger.

"_Find his command control box,"_ Dr. Geiszler said. Raleigh climbed in the hatch on Knight's head. His eyes scanned the insides. He found the control box. It was on the ceiling on the far wall. "Found it" he said.

"_Find the USB port on the box and plug in the flash drive."_ He stood underneath the control box and looked up at it. He could just reach it and he felt for the USB port. His fingers slid down the side and stopped on the port. Keeping his right hand on the port, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the flash drive. He reached up and pushed in the flash drive. He quickly climbed out of Knight and backed away, giving him space in case he should stand.

Knight's jerking stopped and he was still. His paint changed in a wave from head to toe back to black. He sat up, got up on his knees, and stood. His head just barely missed the ceiling. He looked down at Raleigh and held up his hand in a greeting. "Is it you?" Raleigh asked.

"Yes, Raleigh, it is me," Knight said. "I must apologize for my behavior. It is not appropriate to through your pilot. Can you forgive me?" Raleigh chuckled. "Yeah, Knight. I can forgive you" he said.

Several crates behind him fell over in a wave of crates and he turned around. A deep, metallic red Jaeger that looked exactly like Knight was standing just behind the crates. His visor glowed crimson. "Dark Knight, you are to be terminated" it said, in a robotic voice. It was an exact copy of Knight and all of his systems. But the voice was different because this A.I. didn't have freedom like Knight did. He was stuck in parameters that kept him from saying anything that wasn't a command given to him.

Knight reached down and picked up Raleigh. "I will be right behind you. _Get out_" Knight said. He dropped Raleigh on the other side of the crate wall and turned toward the Jaeger. "Red Bishop" Knight sad.

"Dark Knight" Red Bishop said.

"You are a copy of me yet you do not inhabit the same restraint. If you are anything like me, you would treasure human life…not demolish it," Knight said. "I'm giving you a chance to be reprogrammed for good."

"I will not betray my creator. You would know the feeling."

"If you will not join me, I _must_ deactivate you so you cannot hurt anyone else" Knight said, getting into a fighting position.

"I have wanted this for a long time" Bishop said, doing the same.

"I'm sorry it has come to this, brother" Knight said. They charged at each other and slammed into each other, sending sparks flying. Knight stepped back and formed his sonic cannon. He aimed but, before he could shoot, Bishop formed a blade and cut off his hand. With his left hand, Knight slammed his fist into Bishop's head, turning it sideways. Bishop pushed into Knight, shoving him into the wall of crates behind him, knocking them over.

**On the ground**, Raleigh dodged the wave of falling crates that were tumbling to the ground. When they stopped falling, he noticed a few crates were open and their contents were splayed across the floor—little black boxes. He picked up one of the boxes and examined it. On the side was a familiar USB port, just like on Knight's command control box. Then he realized they _were_ Knight's command control box, just smaller versions of it. All of the crates were full of copies of his command control box. Copies of Knight.

**Knight** had Bishop in a head lock. He reached inside his head as he squirmed and ripped out his command control box. Knight let go and Bishop fell lifeless to the ground. Knight made a fist and crushed the box, then let the dust fall out. Even though he wasn't human, he still 'felt' sad for his copy. He could've changed sides, but he chose to be evil.

He turned and saw Raleigh was still there. "Why did you stay? Don't you value your life?" Knight asked him. Raleigh looked up to Knight. "Of course I value my life, but this is important. They're copying you, you're A.I. chip. Who are these guys?" he asked.

"They're known as C.H.E.S.S. I gathered information from the virus that was infecting me. C.H.E.S.S. is creating more Jaegers to be implanted with my command control box. This is not the only warehouse storing these boxes" Knight said.

"Let's get back to the Shatterdome. Pentecost is gonna want to know about this" Raleigh said, looking around at the crates. Knight picked up Raleigh and put him inside his head, then closed the hatch. He walked to the far wall where a large door was, and pulled it open. He walked into the small room just big enough to fit him and shut the door. The platform under him ascended, while the ceiling above him opened. Once they were out and on solid ground, Knight walked to the pick-up spot. Two helicopters flew in and grappled to Knight, lifting him and carrying him back to the Shatterdome.

**As** soon as he landed on the platform, Knight was taxied in and secured in his spot. They used extra restraints around his arms and legs just to be safe.

Pentecost met Raleigh as he exited the loading room. He handed Pentecost one of the black boxes. "There are thousands more of those where they had Knight. He said they were creating more of him" Raleigh said.

"They who?"

"C.H.E.S.S. they had another Jaeger there, sir. It was an exact replica of Knight, he called him Red Bishop—like a chess piece. I'm thinking the Knight Lila saw was the copy."

"Good work. Lila's in the lab. She came out of whatever trance she was in a few minutes after the flash drive was inserted in Knight. She's been asking for you" Pentecost said. Raleigh nodded and started for the lab.


	14. Chapter 14

Lila was sitting on the metal table she'd been laying on. She scratched her forehead where one of the chords had been. She didn't remember anything after she fell unconscious, no matter how hard she thought about it. And what the weirdest part about it was when she woke up her left arm wasn't broken anymore. She stared at it in confusion. "This was broken when I fell asleep!" She said, holding up her left arm for Dr. Geiszler to see behind her. Dr. Geiszler looked at her arm then back at his computer. "It looks like what cured Knight cured you as well. _He_ was completely repaired, and now _you_ are completely repaired" he said. She wiggled her fingers several times.

She heard footsteps and looked up as Raleigh walked into the lab. He walked straight to her and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder. Dr. Geiszler looked up from his computer and did a double-take. "When did _you_ two become a _thing_?!" he asked.

"Back to work, doctor" Lila said. Dr. Geiszler mumbled something to himself and walked further into the lab. Raleigh pulled away and Lila held up her arm. "My arm isn't broken anymore" she said.

"What?"

"Yeah, apparently whatever fixed Knight fixed me, too. No I don't need a sling" she said, glancing at the sling beside her.

"Do you remember anything that happened?" Raleigh asked.

"I just remember passing out in my room and then waking up here," she said. "How's Knight?"

"Fine, except he lost a hand," she gasped. "But he'll be fine."

"He lost a _hand_? How?" she asked.

"There's another Knight. He cut it off."

"Wait…you were _there_? With another Knight that could have _squished_ you? Are you crazy?" she asked. Raleigh chuckled and kissed her. "You're cute when you're worried" he said, as he looked into her eyes. She hung her arms around his neck and kissed him. Dr. Geiszler walked back to his computer and he stopped when he noticed they were kissing. He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, great, now they're kissing" he muttered, as he started typing on his computer. After a minute he looked up from the computer and said, "Are you going to do that all day?"

Lila pulled away and sighed. She swiveled around and looked at Geiszler. "I nearly died, cut me some slack" she said.

"This once, I will condone this type of behavior, in my lab" he said, holding up a finger. She laughed and hopped off the table. "I think he might have an aneurism," she said, as they began walking out of the lab. "if he ever sees us kissing again."

"He doesn't have to see us" he said.

"And how would that happen? He could go anywhere in the Shatterdome" she said.

They rounded the corner into the hallway of barracks. Raleigh stopped by his room and Lila stopped just after he did. "Actually, he can't go everywhere" Raleigh said.

"You're not really suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?" he shrugged his shoulders with a grin. "Maybe" he said. She realized he was serious and butterflies flew around in her stomach. "Um…Won't people notice we're missing?" she asked.

"Not necessarily" he said. Mentally, she tried convincing herself not to do it. It would be a bad idea, and they would get caught when they didn't show up at lunch and people came looking. She debated it in her head for a minute then, against her better judgment, she went with him.


	15. Chapter 15

**The next day**, Lila walked into the control room. Pentecost stopped talking with someone and turned toward her. "Good, you're here. Lila this is Tendo Choi. He's come back to the Jaeger program, and he will be helping you here in the control room" Pentecost said. Lila shook hands with Tendo and Pentecost left. "I already started digging on this 'C.H.E.S.S.' organization" Tendo said.

"Oh, good. Did you find anything?" Lila asked.

"It used to be a weapons manufacturer for the military ten years ago. But the military ended it's contract with them and no one has heard from them since," he said. "They were up for a role as key manufacturer for the Jaeger program when it started, but they didn't get the contract, which makes me think this is a revenge vendetta."

"You think they're out for revenge? So the Jaeger's must be for-"

"A war" he finished.

"A Jaeger war? In the middle of craziness with the Kaiju war?" Lila sighed. "It's a long shot but I think we have to prepare for anything."

"Where do we start?" Lila smiled and sat in her chair. "You've been here before so you know that systems. I need all of our eyes and ears on alert. Can you do that?" she asked.

"_Can I do that_?" he chuckled. He sat in the chair to the left of her and started doing things on his computer.

**Raleigh **was walking down a hallway when Levi walked up to him, making him stop. "We need to talk" Levi said.

"About what? I have nothing to say to you" Raleigh said.

"Yeah, well this isn't about you and me this is about Lila" he said.

"Isn't it obvious? All you do is hurt her. And she's through with it, why do you think she hasn't spoken to you since you hit me in the mess hall? We don't need to have a conversation for that to be clear." Anger boiled inside Levi. "You knew how I felt about her and you just didn't care. You thought you'd take advantage of the opportunity and sleep with her when she was vulnerable" he said.

"Are you seriously going there?" Raleigh asked.

"Yeah, I am." Levi put his hands on Raleigh's chest and pushed. Raleigh stumbled back and shook his head. "Levi, you don't want to start something you can't finish" Raleigh said.

"Oh, I can finish it."

**Lila** and Tendo finished compiling all of the information they have of C.H.E.S.S. in the control room and gave everyone one the task of finding the next warehouse. Pentecost walked into the control and stood with his hands folded behind his back. "Lila, could I have a word please? _Now_?" he asked, slightly angry. Lila recognized the tone in his voice and excused herself from her desk. She followed him out of the control room and Pentecost turned to her. "What did I tell you about relationships?" he asked. Lila knew something must have happened but she didn't ask. "That they only cause death in the field" she said.

"So why are we in relationships, Lila? I thought I made myself clear."

"I'm sorry, sir, but what exactly are you referring to?"

"Explain to me why Raleigh and Levi were duking it out in the hallway by the barracks. Then maybe I'll think of answering your question." Lila sighed. "Levi has become hostile toward Raleigh because he thinks we're together. But I assure you I'm not _with_ anyone, sir. I'll let you know when I am but until then I ask that you please stop making this personal," she said. "It's not your right as commander and chief to dictate who loves and who doesn't. It's a violation of code to do so, sir. So again I ask that you not make this personal." She walked around him and down the hallway. She took a deep breath and prayed that wouldn't blow up in her face.

**She** walked to the Shatterdome medical center—a small room in the east wing. She sighed as she entered. Raleigh was sitting on the table in the corner and a nurse was outing a bandage on his forehead near his temple. "What am I going to do with you?" Lila asked, walking to the table.

"Before you say anything, he started it and I finished it. End of story" Raleigh said. The nurse finished with his bandages and walked away. Lila saw the other four bandages on random places on his face and the bruising around his neck. "Oh my god, Raleigh. If you look like _this_, what did you do to him?" she asked.

"Let's just leave it at 'he'll need stitches'" he said.

"Why? Is that hard just to walk away?" she asked.

"With him? Yes."

"What happened?"

"He pushed me."

"So you _hit_ him?"

"No, after he pushed me, _he_ hit _me_…then I hit him." Lila sighed and rubbed the bride of her nose. "This is getting out of control" she said. Raleigh stood and slightly limped on his right leg, wincing when he put weight on it. Lila noticed this and said, "What happened to your leg?"

"Twisted it. No big deal" he said, taking another step past her.

"No big deal? Really? You're limping and it's no big deal?" she asked.

"Do we have to talk about this right now?" he asked, turning toward her at the doorway.

"If not now when?" she asked, raising her voice a little. "It's like you actually like getting hurt because you do it so often. Did you ever think that just maybe your injuries don't just hurt you? When I was infected with that virus with Knight you risked your _life_ to fix it. But you won't even _talk_ to me when you're hurt. Does that sound right to you?"

"I just don't need you worrying about me all the time."

"Well, _tough shit_, I'm worried anyway." She walked past him and up the hallway. She took a deep breath and tried to not look like she was angry. "I've always been worried" she mumbled.

**She** walked back into the control room, and to her relief, Pentecost wasn't there. Tendo stood from his chair, looking at a tablet, and turned toward her. "I found something really peculiar," he looked up and stopped. "You look pissed."

"I do? Great. Just what I need" she said, under her breath. She sat in her chair. "What's peculiar?" she asked. Tendo sat in the chair to her left.


	16. Chapter 16

**One month later**, Lila was overseeing Knight's repair. Several of the workers had concerns that he might still be infected, so she had to supervise. She stood below them in the hanger as they worked on Knight. She had her ear piece in and she and Knight were having a debate. "But it just seemed like they were copying transformers" she said.

"_It was merely a coincidence they used the same voice for Carr as Optimus Prime"_ Knight said.

"Fine," she sighed. "You win. It was a 'coincidence'."

"_Lila, I've been meaning to talk to you about something humans refer to as 'personal'." _

"What is it?"

"_During my last diagnostic—thirty-two minutes and seven seconds ago—my systems scanned you as well,"_

"Knight, why is that personal?"

"_Because of the result." _

"Which was…? Getting information from you is like pulling teeth."

"_Lila, my results suggest that you are pregnant." _

"What does 'suggest' mean?" fear creeping into her voice.

"_It means it is probable that it is correct." _

"Are you sure?" her voice broke on the last word.

"_One-hundred percent."_ She took out her ear piece, turned, and left the hanger. As she walked, she mentally tried to convince herself he was wrong. It wasn't likely he was wrong but she still prayed for it. She walked into the barracks and walked to her door. She opened it and walked inside, shutting the door behind her. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She slid down the door to the floor and sobbed. She shook her head as if that could somehow shake the words from her head.

She stood and walked to the bathroom mirror. She looked at herself as more tears rolled down her cheeks. _This isn't happening_, she thought. _It can't_. She walked back into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. She touched her stomach and instantly pulled it away. She had to be dreaming. she wondered who the father was. She hadn't slept with anyone for weeks.

Then she remembered. She had slept with Raleigh. The baby would be his. That made her wish it wasn't real even more. This wasn't the time for this—they were in the middle of a war with C.H.E.S.S.! She couldn't be pregnant. Knight's system would be wrong and she'd go back to being her normal self.

_But_, she thought. _If it was true he would need to know_. She put in her ear piece. "Knight, are absolutely sure you didn't just malfunction?" she asked into it.

"_I am sure"_ Knight said in her ear. She sighed shakily and stood from her bed. She took out her ear piece and stuffed it into her pants pocket. She took a deep breath and started out of her room.

She walked to the mess hall and found Raleigh there sitting at a table with Mordechai and Benjamin. They looked really into the conversation, making insane hand gestures and weird faces. She took another deep breath and walked to the table. "Raleigh, we need to talk. Preferably now" she said. He stood from the tone to her voice. "Is everything okay?" he asked, quietly.

"Yeah," she nodded. "We just need to talk." He nodded and she led him back to her room. He walked in and she shut the door behind him. "What is it?" he asked, turning to face her. She started to shake and she felt nervous. "Um…Knight and I were talking earlier, and he said that I…that I was pregnant" she said. Raleigh stayed quiet, letting what she said sink in before speaking. "Are you sure he's right?" he asked, quietly. She didn't look at him as she nodded silently.

He quickly put his arms around her and held her tightly. "I'm sorry," he said against her neck. "It was my fault."

"It doesn't matter whose fault it was" she said, hugging him back. They were quiet for a long time. They just stood holding each other without a word. Lila wondered what he thought, what was going through his head. Was he mad? Was he disappointed? Was he happy? She couldn't tell by what little he said. It was then she realized she'd have to tell Pentecost sooner or later. She can't pilot Knight while pregnant, and she can't run around the Shatterdome for the entire pregnancy either.

"Are you angry?" She asked.

"No, I'm not angry" he said.

"Then why are you so quiet?"

"I don't know what to say, Lila. Do we want this? Are we even ready for this?" she pulled back and looked into his eyes. "It doesn't matter if we're ready; it's here whether or not we want it. I've always wanted a family, just not necessarily like this. Do you still want me if I keep the baby?" she asked.

"Of course I do," he said. "I'll always want you."

"Then we have nothing to worry about, because we have each other. This is a two person thing, okay?" he chuckled and kissed her passionately. Lila remembered back when she was a teenager:

_In Hong Kong, a young girl was walking down the street. She had recently died her hair blonde with four inch red tips and got bangs. She had only just arrived in Hong Kong and was badly lost. She reached into her leather satchel and pulled out a map. She unfolded it and it started to rain. She quickly folded it back down and stuffed it into her satchel again. Then suddenly the whole ground shook and aloud roar echoed throughout Tokyo. _

_She knew what that meant. She followed the people running. She ran into one of the bunkers and someone ran in behind her just before they closed the doors. She turned and saw a man who was drenched with glasses and dark hair. He looked familiar but didn't know why. Then the whole bunker shook and people huddled together. It shook again and the man backed into the crowd. She stayed by the door. A few minutes later, someone shouted, "It wants him! Throw him out!" she pushed through the crowd of people and saw several people were grabbing the man she'd recognized. _

_She pushed through and grabbed the man's arm, pulling him away from the crowd. "Back the F off, people!" she shouted at the crowd. They all huddled back together murmuring about tossing him out to the beast. "Uh, thanks…?" the man said. _

"_Lila" she said, shaking his hand. _

"_Doctor Newton Geiszler." _


	17. Chapter 17

Okay, I wanted to do a chapter on Lila's background. So this chapter is a _**flashback**_. Hope you guys enjoy it!

-BarnCat23

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Lila** changed her hair colors everywhere she went. She was in a new place so she'd dyed it black. She'd been working on the Wall to raise money for her next trip.

**Lila** finished working for the day and was walking to the exit, when she bumped into someone. "Oh sorry" she said, stepping back. She noticed she had bumped into a man. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. He seemed oddly familiar but she couldn't place him. He half-smiled. "It's alright. What's your name?" he asked.

"Dehlila. But everyone calls me Lila" she said, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Lila. My name's Raleigh" he said.

"Raleigh…as in Raleigh _Becket_?" she asked. He nodded and she chuckled. "Well, I certainly didn't expect to run into a Jaeger pilot here."

"You look a little young to be working here," he said, changing subjects. "How old are you?"

"Right now? Sixteen. They only hired me 'cause I know my way around a machine" she said.

"Where'd you learn?"

"My dad was a Jaeger pilot. I don't know him personally—he left when I was young—but he inspired me to learn. I pretty much taught myself everything I know…well, I didn't mean to chat your ear off. I guess I'll see you around" she said. She smiled before walking out and across the yard to the fence. She opened the gate when a helicopter landed in front to the door to the wall. She recognized the symbol on the side and smiled. "Say yes" she whispered to herself. She smiled again before turning and leaving the yard.

She hitched a ride in a pick-up truck to a hotel she'd been staying at. She hoped out of the bed of the truck and waved to the driver before entering the hotel. She rode an elevator to the thirteenth floor and walked to her room. She pulled her key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

She shut the door behind her and took off her coat. She walked to the bed by the glass door on the far wall and reached underneath it. She pulled out a brown paper bag and sat on the bed facing the glass. She pulled this week's pay out of her pocket and pulled the money from the bag out. She counted the money total and shrieked happily. She'd finally raised enough money to leave this place.

She'd be on the next flight to Hong Kong and she would never look back. She stood and gathered her things into her satchel, including the brown bag, and left the room. She checked out of her room and left the hotel. She hitched a ride to the airport and found her way to the ticket booth. "Hi, what can I do for you today?" a cheery woman behind the desk asked.

"One ticket to Hong Kong, please" she said.

"That will be two hundred for the red-eye—one way—eighty-seven for the one way, and three hundred for the round trip."

"I need the red eye, please." As the woman typed on her computer she said, "Going to visit family?"

"Um, no, just taking a trip." She said thank you when she took her ticket and went to the security section. She was checked through and she waited for eight o'clock. "Flight three-seven-seven to Hong Kong now boarding" the voice over the intercom speakers said. She stood and walked to the gate. She handed her ticket to the two people standing at the gate and they handed it back. She walked through the tunnel onto the plane and found her seat.

The first thing she did in Hong Kong was get her hair dyed. She chose blonde with red tips and she decided to get bangs. It was weird, to her, to see herself with all these different hairstyles. But she needed to be a different person so she wouldn't be recognized. She was paranoid but she didn't care.

She left the salon with her newly dyed hair and started walking. She didn't know where she was going but she just wanted to walk. She walked for miles and ended up in a china-town-looking place. She pulled out her map she had found at the airport and unfolded it just before it started raining. She quickly folded it back down and stuffed it in her satchel.

There was a loud roar and the ground shook. One thought ran through her head: _Kaiju_. People were running and screaming all around her. People she hadn't even noticed until they ran. She followed the crowd of people into a shelter. Someone came in right behind her and they closed the doors.

She noticed the man that came in behind her. He was drenched from head to toe, was wearing glasses, and had black hair. He looked familiar but she didn't know why. The whole place shook and the group huddled together. The man she came in with backed into the crowd but Lila stayed closer to the door.

A minute later she heard someone say, "It wants him! Throw him out!" she pushed through the crowd and saw people were pulling and pushing the man she came in with. She pushed through and grabbed the man's arm, pulling him away from the people. "Back the F off people!" she shouted. The all huddled back together and started murmuring. "Thanks…?" the man asked.

"Lila" she said, shaking his hand.

"Dr. Newton Geiszler" he said.

"No. way. You work for the PPDC right?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"My father was a Jaeger pilot" she said, just before the room shook again.

"Really? Which one?"

"I don't know. Never met him. He left when I was just a baby."

"Maybe I could find out…you know, to repay you for helping me out."

"Oh no, you don't have to do that."

"No, I want to. Maybe I know the guy" he said. The room shook more violently than before and that worried Lila. She'd seen her fair share of Kaiju but never up close. They scared her, though she'd never admit to it. A part of the roof was torn off and a Kaiju was visible. Lila backed away quickly and stared at the monster with wide eyes. Something happened and the Kaiju backed away from the shelter.

**The next day**, Lila was walking down a sidewalk when something caught her eye. She stopped and saw a little TV propped up on the wall. The news was on a national channel. All she could understand from it was the Breach was closed. Lila slightly gasped. It was closed. No more Kaiju. She turned and bumped into someone. She backed up and started to say something but stopped when she saw who she'd bumped into.

It was Dr. Newton Geiszler from the shelter. She smiled. "Sorry for bumping into you" she said.

"My fault, I didn't factor in that you'd turn around," he chuckled. "I came with news about your dad."

"Really? What did you find?"

"Well, with the hair sample I took from you, I identified your dad as Hercules Hanson. He piloted-"

"I know which one. He has a son right?"

"Well…his son, Chuck, died in action closing the Breach."

"Oh my god…he _died_? But my father is okay, right?"

"Yeah he's fine. In fact he's at the Shatterdome. I'd take you to see him but I don't think they'd allow you in."

"That's fine, really. I'm just happy to know where I stand. Thank you so much." She hugged him a second then stepped away. "I'll see you…someday" Lila said, finishing with a chuckle. They half-waved to each other and she turned around, walking the other way.

[Lila stayed in Hong Kong longer than she expected—three years. During that time she found a small apartment to live in and got a job at a mechanic shop. On the weekends she took a self-defense class. She liked learning the fighting technics so she kept doing it until she was in the advanced class and it was still too beginner for her.]

She was walking out of the dojo she'd been training at, when she was greeted by the one and only Stacker Pentecost. She stopped dead in her tracks and her eye widened a little. "Y-you were dead" she said. He chuckled at her greeting and sighed. "I thought I was…but that's a story for another day. I'm here because my scientist told me of a girl whose father is a Jaeger pilot. I had no idea Hercules had a daughter until now. I'm in need of an assistant, and since you have knowledge of the PPDC I thought I'd ask you if wanted the job" he said. Her jaw nearly dropped. "U-uh…yes, of course I want it!" she said.

"Good. Come with me" he said.

"Thank you, sir" she said, following him to a car just down the street.

They arrived at the Shatterdome and Lila gawked the whole way inside. She couldn't believe where she was. They walked inside the hanger and Lila nearly stopped walking. She was inside the Shatterdome. Where the Jaegers were kept. She followed Pentecost in her jeans and tank top, feeling completely under dressed, through the Shatterdome. He gave her a brief tour of the necessities and then they headed to her room.

In one of the hallways they passed Raleigh Becket walking the other way. They both stopped a few feet opposite each other. They both turned around and looked at each other. Lila hoped he wouldn't recognize her. She would have to tell him her name but she still wished she could be somebody else. "You look familiar…have I met you before?" he asked.

"Think real hard. Three years ago" she said, slipping her hands into her front pockets. He thought about it, looking her over once or twice. Then he blinked a few times in disbelief. "Lila?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's me."

"You looked really different," he gestured to his hair. "With the new hair and everything." Pentecost walked over and stood by Lila. "You two have met before?" he asked, looking between them.

"Yes, sir. Three years ago" Raleigh said, still looking at her.

"Good, then I don't have to introduce you. Come Miss Archer" Pentecost said, turning and walking away. Lila smiled at Raleigh and followed Pentecost.


	18. Chapter 18

**Lila **and Raleigh sat down at a table in the mess hall with their lunch. Lila heard a familiar voice through the noise and looked around. Her eyes stopped on a dog sitting by a table. She looked up and saw it's owner sitting at a table across the mess hall. It's owner was Hercules Hanson. She didn't know why he'd come back to the program after all that t's done to him. But he was there. "What is it?" she looked back across from her and Raleigh was worriedly looking at her. "Nothing. Mr. Hanson is back, is all" she said, looking down at her food.

"Have you ever met him?"

"No…"

"I'll introduce you, come on" he said, standing. She started to panic. "Um, no thanks. You know what? I forgot I had some paperwork to do. I should go get that done" she said, standing and walking to the door. She stopped at the door and looked at Hercules once before leaving completely.

**Raleigh** didn't know what he did to piss her off. But Lila left, so he sat back down, alone. A while later Hercules and his dog walked over to Raleigh's table. Raleigh stood and shook his hand. "Glad to see you back" Raleigh said.

"Glad to be back, despite what you may be thinking. Who was the girlie leaving you earlier?" Herc asked.

"Oh, that was Pentecost's assistant, Lila."

"Why did she leave? Had enough of you already?"

"She left after she noticed you were back. I offered to introduce you two but she left."

"Oh, so I guess it's my fault then," he said. "Suppose I should go introduce myself." Herc walked his dog out of the mess hall and went to find Lila.

**He** had asked around and people said she was headed to her room. So he went to the barracks and to the room everyone said was hers. He knocked once on the door and waited, occasionally glancing at his dog. The door opened a few minutes later and Lila was standing in the doorway. "Mr. Hanson, what brings you to my room?" she asked. She sounded rehearsed. Like she had planned out what she was going to say before she opened the door. "Just thought I'd come introduce myself. I hear your Pentecost's assistant" Herc said.

"Yes, I'm also the pilot liaison and I help out in the control room. My name is Lila" she said. She held out her hand hesitantly and Herc shook it. "That's a beautiful name" he said.

"Thank you. It's short for Dehlila." She tried to smile and not look like she was regretting opening the door. It could sense she was uneasy when talking to him and wondered why. "Is everything alright, girlie? You seem nervous" he said.

"Oh, no, I'm fine. It's just I'm a big fan of yours. And your son. I'm really sorry about Chuck" she said.

"He would've liked you." that made her even more uneasy than before. Now they were talking about children. He asked her if she was planning on having them one day and she wished he'd never said anything. "Yeah, actually I'm expecting" she said.

"Wow, congrats. Who's the father?" she hesitated to say anything at al. she'd thought of just closing her door and locking herself in until he left. But she answered. "Raleigh" she said. Herc raised his eyebrows. "Raleigh's going to be a dad? Now that I never thought I'd see" he joked. She awkwardly laughed and then stopped when she realized how stupid that must have sounded. "Can I ask you something, sir?" she asked.

"Yes, if you promise not to call me _sir_."

"Okay, I won't call you _sir_. I was wondering…do you have any other children?"

"Yes, actually. But I don't know her. I had to leave when she was very small and I don't think she'd remember me." she started tearing up when he'd said that. "I think she would" she said, quietly.

"Yeah? Maybe I should look her up" he said, sensing something in her statement. A tear fell from her eye. "You don't remember me at all?" she asked. "I know how long it's been but…you don't remember me."

"Excuse me?"

"Look at my eyes. Tell me you don't remember me" she said. Herc, confused, looked into her eyes. He thought about it but didn't recognize her. Then he saw the flecks of blue in her eyes that he recognized. Those eyes…he knew he'd seen them before but didn't recognize her. "Tell me you don't remember me" Lila said again.

"I…I don't know you. I'm sorry, but I've never seen you before." She wiped her eyes, which tears were still falling from, and sniffled. "Of course you don't. what was I thinking? Just coming out like that? of course you wouldn't recognize me" she said.

"Where do you think I've seen you?" he asked, feeling bad about making her cry. She laughed. "At my house in Sydney. My mother, Marina, and I lived there-" she said.

"Wait, _Marina_? You're…_Piper_?" he asked.

"Yeah…it's me. I tried finding you after you left us…but I couldn't. and then I came here and I-" he cut her off with a hug, to which she cried more, and she hugged him back. "You have no Idea how much I've missed you" he said.

"I missed you, too, dad" she said. He held her tighter after she called him 'dad'. He pulled away and looked at her. "You've grown so much. And you're going to have a baby? I'm going to be a grandfather? _You're_ having babies and all I've ever seen you as is _my_ baby" he said. She smiled and laughed. "When are you due?" he asked.

"February" she said. He hugged her again and she laughed. She was so happy. She'd finally found her dad, and Herc finally found his daughter.

**Just then**, Raleigh walked into the hallway and stopped when he saw them hugging. _They didn't know each other_, he thought, _why are they hugging?_

**He** walked over a few feet and stood. "So, I see you've met" he said. Herc pulled away and turned to Raleigh. "Of course we've met. I'm her father" Herc said.

"_What_?" he asked.

"Don't freak out, okay?" Lila said, walking to him. "I finally found my birth father and I don't want to ruin it."

"I'm gonna freak out, Lila."

"Piper" she corrected. He raised an eyebrow at her. "My name is actually Piper. My middle name is Dehlila. And my _mother's_ last name is Archer. My full name is Piper Dehlila Hanson. But Lila's fine if you don't wanna call me Piper." He smiled and glanced at Herc, who nodded. Raleigh looked back at Lila and took a deep breath.  
"_Piper Dehlila Hanson_, you know I'd do anything for you. I'm completely, madly in love with you no matter what your name is," he took a shaky breath. "And I need to ask you something," he pulled a ring out of his pocket and got down on his knee. "Will you marry me?" Lila—_Piper_—couldn't speak. She never expected this. She finally reunited with her father and now the man she loves is proposing? She knew she must have done something good to deserve this. And she had no idea what it was.

She quickly nodded and said, "Yes." Raleigh stood and slipped the ring on her left hand.


	19. Chapter 19

**A few minutes** after the proposal, the sirens started. Raleigh quickly kissed Lila then ran to the loading room. Lila hurried to the control room and sat in her chair. Tendo was to her right this time, she noticed, as she put in her ear piece. "We have a level five Kaiju off the coast of Hong Kong" Tendo said. Lila inhaled sharply. "I'm sending Gypsy" she said.

"Are you sure the pilots are okay to drift?"

"They'll be fine. Start the drift" she said, glancing at him. He silently nodded and started the drift on his screen. The drift stated and the vitals started off wavering. But they evened out and everything fell into sync. Lila sighed in relief and pressed on her ear piece. "Control to hanger, requesting taxi for Gypsy Danger" she said into it.

"_Copy that control, commencing taxi."_ Pentecost and Herc stood to the left of Lila watching the front screen. They taxied Gypsy Danger out to the platform and the helicopters grappled to the Jaeger, lifting it and carrying it to where the Kaiju is.

**Inside Gypsy Danger**, Levi glared at Raleigh with distain. They'd gone through the drift, he'd seen Raleigh's memories, and now he knew Raleigh proposed to Lila…and she'd said yes. No doubt he was angry, but he couldn't act on it until they didn't have to fight a Kaiju. And that pissed him off.

Raleigh sighed in annoyance and looked at Levi. "Now you know it was consensual" he said.

"Shut up" Levi said, looking away. Raleigh shook his head and looked forward.

**In the control room**, Lila patched her ear piece into the Gypsy Danger speakers. She was shaking she was so nervous. She's always been nervous about sending a Jaeger out, but this one held her future husband and her baby's father. That just made the feeling worse as she spoke. "Five minutes until drop. This Kaiju is level five so it won't be too hard" she said into her ear piece.

"_That's what she said"_ Raleigh said. Lila chuckled. "_She_ says a lot of things" she said, making Pentecost glance at her curiously. _"That's definitely an understatement"_ Raleigh said.

"Yes, it really is," she said. "Two minutes, guys. Good luck."

**On the coast near Hong Kong**, a Kaiju stood in the water a mile from land and bellowed. It was an ear piercing scream that was full of anger and hatred. It started for the city as Gypsy Danger was dropped into the water behind it. It turned around and screeched at the sight of the Jaeger. It started after Gypsy Danger and leaped for it. The Jaeger didn't react in time and the Kaiju landed on them, clawing into the Jaeger's shoulders.

**In the control room**, everyone was watching the news coverage of the fight. When Gypsy Danger didn't act in time, Pentecost shook his head in annoyance. He knew why they weren't cooperating properly and it made him angry. Lila just crossed her arms and prayed they would get it together in time to stop the Kaiju.

**On the coast near Hong Kong**, Gypsy pushed the Kaiju off and it fell back a few feet. The Kaiju stood and whipped it's tail at the Jaeger. Gypsy caught it just before it hit them and pulled on it, swinging the Kaiju back and then slamming it down into the water.

The Kaiju stood and grabbed Gypsy's torso in one swift motion. It squeezed and pulled and tore the Jaeger into three pieces—the legs, the head, and the crumpled metal of the torso.

**In the control room**, gasps and whispers echoed through the room Lila shook her head and sighed. They needed to get their act together, but now they need more than that. They need to send out another Jaeger and pick up Gypsy's pieces. "Get another Jaeger ready" Pentecost said to her. She nodded and called the River Rat crew to their loading room. They taxied River Rat to the platform and the helicopters grappled to it.

**Inside Gypsy Danger**, "Way to go" Raleigh said.

"It's not my fault you missed a step."

"I did not miss a step. You can't get over yourself long enough to pilot the Jaeger and protect the city from the Kaiju. This isn't just about you and me. When you step into the Jaeger you can't worry about _your_ life, you have to see what's in front of you and _kill it_" Raleigh said, annoyed.

"And this is coming from the guy that got both his previous co-pilots killed" Levi said.

"Levi, I swear, if you don't shut up right now I'm gonna take these straps off and kick your ass."

"What, you can dish it but you can't take it?"

"_Grow up you two. This is no time to argue. We're sending out River Rat and helicopters to pick you up. And we'll talk about this in my office when you get back"_ Pentecost said, through the speakers.

**In the control room**, Pentecost sighed, annoyed. He glanced at Lila before leaving the room. Lila put her head in her hands and sighed. She sighed and stood from her chair. She walked to the hanger and stood beside Pentecost, who was waiting for the boys to get back. "Sir, I take full responsibility for what happened" she said.

"This isn't just you, Lila. This involves them, too, because they can't pull it together when they're needed. I respect your decision to try and take all the blame, but I cannot let this go unpunished" he said, stiffly. She nodded. "I understand, sir" she said. They stood silently, not giving each other a second glance when the remnants of Gypsy Danger were taxied in. Lila sighed when she saw how little was left.

Raleigh and Levi walked into the hanger, both looking completely angry, and stood in front of Pentecost. Pentecost looked them both over a minute. "Get changed and get to my office" he said, sternly. He didn't wait for a response. He turned and left the hanger, leaving Lila, Levi, and Raleigh standing in the middle of the room.

After watching Pentecost walk away, Lila turned on them. "What the hell? You either could've gotten seriously injured or killed. And you endangered the city when you were too busy arguing to do your job" she said. She shook her head as she turned and started walking out of the hanger.

**After changing**, Raleigh and Levi walked to Pentecost's office. Raleigh knocked on the door. "Come in." the both walked in and closed the door. Lila was already there in the office and she didn't glance at them when they walked in. Levi closed the door behind him and the stood In front of Pentecost's desk next to Lila. "I'm going to start with one person at a time, and you'll answer my question, 'why can't you get along?' Levi, answer my question" Pentecost said.

"Because my co-pilot is a back-stabbing jerk" he replied, nonchalantly.

"Raleigh, answer my question" Pentecost said.

"I don't have anything against Levi, sir. He comes at me first" Raleigh said. Pentecost sighed in annoyance. He hated having to deal with stupid small things like this when he could be doing something more important. "So, is the consensus that you can't work together anymore?" he asked.

"Respectfully, sir, yes we can't work together. His arrogance is endangering innocent people and putting our lives at risk" Raleigh said.

"And Lila, where do you fit into all of this?" Pentecost asked, looking over at Lila. She shifted nervously. "Apparently, sir, Levi still has feelings for me and he thinks Raleigh stole me from him" she said, hesitantly.

"Well, did he?"

"No, sir."

"Then why are we still having problems? What is going on that you three aren't willing to speak of?" Pentecost asked, looking between all three of them.

"I'm pregnant" Lila said, suddenly. Pentecost dropped his pen and his eyes widened slightly as he looked at her. "I was going to say something, sir, but then this happened" she said. It was then Pentecost noticed the ring on her left hand the clutched her tablet. "Which one of you is it?" Pentecost asked, looking to Raleigh and Levi.

"Me, sir" Raleigh said. Pentecost sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Obviously these problems go deeper than I'd realized. I don't have time to go over every detail and deduct everything. Levi, stay, both of you can go" he said. Lila and Raleigh left the office and Levi stayed behind.


	20. Chapter 20

Lila waited outside Pentecost's office for a long time before Levi walked out. He glanced at her then started down the hallway. She fell into step beside him. "Levi, I want to apologize. I wasn't really the fairest person in the world and that hurt you. I'm sorry" she said.

"Lila, you don't need to apologize for anything" Levi said, as they rounded the corner to the barracks.

"Uh, yeah I do."

"No you don't."

"Oh my god! You are so argumentative! When a girl apologizes, you don't say she didn't need to, 'cause odds are she won't apologize again and most likely ditch you" she said, as they stopped in the hall by his room.

"You won't have to deal with me any longer. I'm leaving the program" he said.

"What? Why?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I have some things to sort out. On my own." He turned and walked into his room, shutting the door behind him. Lila sighed, irritated, and walked to her room across the hall. She stopped in front of her door when she noticed someone walking up to her. She turned and saw it was a man. He looked familiar, but she couldn't quite place him. "Excuse me, I was told you're Pentecost's assistant" he said.

"Yes, my name is Lila" she said, holding out her hand. He shook it and smiled. "Yancy Becket" he said. Lila gasped loudly and her eyes widened. "W-what?"

"I know, it's hard to comprehend. I was wondering if you could tell me where my brother might be."

"Oh, Raleigh is probably in his room. It's across the hall, over there" she said, pointing out Raleigh's room.

"Thank you, Lila" he said. She nodded and he turned around. He walked across the hall and went to Raleigh's door. Lila, still in shock, went into her room and closed the door. Lila sat on her bed and thought about what just happened. Either she saw a ghost, or she was going crazy. She lied back on her bed and instantly fell asleep.

**She** woke up a while later to a knock on her door. She quickly stood and opened the door. Raleigh was standing outside her room, arms crossed, and she noticed his eyes were a little red. "Did you know?" he asked.

"What?"

"Did you know my brother was alive?"

"No, of course I didn't know! I only found out in the hall when _he_ walked up to me" she said. Raleigh sighed and glanced behind him at his brother, who was leaning against the wall on the other side of the hallway. "Did he tell you how he's here?" she asked. Raleigh shook his head as he looked back at her. "He won't tell me a damn thing," he said, angrily. "I'm his brother for god's sake, and he won't tell me anything."

"Calm down, okay? I'm sure there's a simple explanation for this" she said. He nodded and sighed. Lila walked around him and across the hall to Yancy. She stood in front of him and crossed her arms. "You know what's weird? I remember the day they announced you were dead. And several years later, I'm here in this position where I have to ask you how you _didn't_ die" she said. He chuckled. "Yeah, that is kind of weird" he said.

"How did you survive?" she asked.

"That's classified. But maybe I can leak a few secrets if you tell me what's between you and my brother" he said. Lila sighed and rolled her eyes. She held up her left hand and he raised his eyebrows. "Wow, definitely never pictured Raleigh actually getting married" he said. She crossed her arms again and raised an eyebrow. "I was in the water for four days, just floating, until I was picked up by a fishing vessel and they took me back to civilization. But by then everyone was already convinced I was dead…so why not act like it?" he said, shrugging. Raleigh was standing beside Lila scowling at his brother. "How come you couldn't tell me, but you could tell Lila?" Raleigh asked.

"'Cause I knew you'd hit me. Anyway, I'm back to be your new partner" Yancy said.

"But I have one already" Raleigh said.

"Levi is leaving the program" Lila said.

"And I'm taking his place" Yancy said. Lila glanced between Yancy and Raleigh. "I should leave you two to talk" she said. She turned and and left the barracks. "Why her?" Yancy asked Raleigh.

"Because I love her. Why else?" he asked. Yancy shrugged. "Because she's pretty, smart, thin, I don't know" Yancy said.

"You were dead…don't expect me to be how I was when you were here. I've changed a lot in the years you were gone."

"I get it. You're getting married, starting a family, doing your own thing. It'll be like I'm not even here, promise" Yancy said.

**Lila** finished her work in the control room and was requested in the lab. She sighed and started to the lab. She reviewed files on her tablet as she walked. It was hard to concentrate with the things going on in her life. Levi was leaving the program, Yancy was alive and back at the Shatterdome, and Lila reunited with her dad.

She sighed as she walked into the lab. She walked to Dr. Geiszler at his computer. "Oh, Miss Archer! Good, you're here. I have some new information on the A.I. system Raleigh recovered from the warehouse," he said, turning and walking to a table further in the lab. He walked back with the black box and held it up for her to see. "This isn't an exact copy. It has flaws and restrictions that Dark Knight never had. But it has a signature on it that isn't C.H.E.S.S."

"What is it?" he brought it up on the 3D model and turned it to where the signature is. Two small cursive letters were carved into the bottom of the box. Lila squinted to read it even when it was zoomed in. "Who is _M A_?" she asked.

"That's what I want to know!" Dr. Geiszler said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "There's no record of anyone working anywhere near Knight with those initials! _Nowhere_ in any universe."

"So…how exactly are we supposed to find this person if this person doesn't exist?"

"That's where I was stuck…" Lila thought about the initials. _M A_. they seemed familiar but she didn't know why. "Obviously we need to cross reference instead of just searching files with one subject" she said. Dr. Geiszler snapped his fingers and started on his computer. It was quiet while he was typing. Lila looked around the lab and tapped her finger on her tablet. A few minutes later Lila sighed. "So…how've you been?" she asked.

"Uh, fine, great. You?"

"Fine…I guess. Did you hear Yancy's back?"

"No, I didn't. Wasn't he _dead_?"

"Supposed to be. But he's back now…"

"I bet Raleigh's happy." Lila chuckled. "You'd think, but he's not. He's pissed" she said.

"I'm coming up empty here. There are no M A's anywhere that I-"

"Oh my god, I know who _M A_ is" she said.

"Who?"

"_Marina Archer_…my mother."


	21. Chapter 21

"**Your **_**mother**_**? **_**What**_**?"**

"My mother was on the team of people that created Knight's A.I. she might be using an alias now but she went by Marina Archer back then" Lila said.

"This is crazy. You think your mother is the one copying the A.I.? But where would she have the tools to do that?" Dr. Geiszler asked.

"My uncle might know. He was one of the original Jaeger mechanics on generation one. I'll give him a call and see if he knows" she said. Lila video-called him on her tablet and waited. A minute later her uncle came up on the screen. "Lila? What do you need?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you knew where mom might have like a lab or someplace she would have lots of room to develop a new A.I." she said.

"Well, your mother wasn't very talkative when came to her research. But…you might want to check her laboratory in Australia. 'New Hope Lab Works' is the name" he said.

"Thanks, uncle Paolo."

"Sure thing, sweetheart." Lila ended the call and looked up the lab he mentioned. "It's in Sydney" she said, scrolling through the website.

"You think she's there? Isn't that kind of an obvious spot?"

"Not unless you work underground" she said, glancing up from her tablet.

"I take it you've been to her underground lair."

"You don't know the half of it," she said, starting to leave the lab. "I'll inform Pentecost of our findings." She walked to Pentecost's office and knocked on the door. "Come in." she opened the door and stepped inside. She stopped when she saw Yancy was talking with Pentecost. "Close the door, please" Pentecost said. She slowly closed the door and loosely held her tablet to her waist. "What is it?"

"Sir, Dr. Geiszler and I have possibly found a lead on the maker of the A.I.'s" she said.

"What lead?"

"We suspect that the creator of the boxes is Marina Archer. We've found a possible location in Sydney, Australia, for her lab" she said.

"Okay…thank you, Miss Archer" Pentecost said, with a dismissive nod. Lila glanced at Yancy before she turned and left the office. She sighed and walked back to the lab. She walked inside the lab and walked to Dr. Geiszler at his computer. "What'd he say?" he asked.

"He said, and I quote, 'Okay'" she said.

"That's it?" he asked. Lila nodded and sighed. "What are we supposed to do now? Sit here and wait for him to do something?" Lila shrugged. "I guess so. I have mounds of other work to do. What are you going to do?" she asked. He shrugged. "I guess take more samples from Kaiju body parts," he said, nonchalantly. "Exciting right?" Lila nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, totally exciting. I'll leave you to it" she said, turning to leave. She left the lab and walked to the control room.

**She** walked into the control room and saw Herc was there with his dog talking to Tendo. Herc's dog turned and ran to Lila, jumping up at her. She knelt down and scratched behind his ears. "Hey boy" she said.

"Max, quite mauling the girl!" Herc said, walking over and grabbing the dog's leash. Lila stood and smiled at her dad. "Max is his name?" she asked. Herc nodded and Lila patted the dog on the head. "He's a gorgeous dog" she said.

"Thanks, he was Chuck's" Herc said, with a saddened expression. Lila regretted saying anything. She smiled without teeth and walked around him to her chair. She sat in the chair and started doing more research on her mother, seeing if the PPDC have any files on her.

**About** an hour later, Pentecost called Lila to the hanger. She sighed and left the control room, heading toward the hanger. She looked on her tablet for a reason why he'd call her to the hanger. Maybe some other place would be a better place than the hanger to discuss something. Maybe it wasn't about talking? She had no idea what was going on when she entered the hanger and spotted Pentecost talking with a girl that looked to be Lila's age with short, blonde hair. Lila approached them and stood in the middle and few feet back from them. They stopped talking and both turned to her. "Lila, this is Terra Kelly. Terra this is Lila," Lila and Terra shook hands, both exchanging friendly smiles. "Terra will be your temporary replacement in Dark Knight, just until you are able to pilot again."

"It's nice to meet you. Knight will be excited to meet you as well" Lila said.

"He's a machine, though, right?" Terra asked, cocking her head to one side. Lila glanced at Pentecost then looked back at Terra. "Yes, he's a machine…but he prefers to be treated as one of us" she said.

"Oh, right!" Terra said, an octave too high. Lila fought the urge to laugh. Terra seemed…unintelligent, to say the least. She seemed like the stereotypical blonde that people make jokes about. "Why don't I introduce you to Knight?" Lila suggested. Terra nodded. "Sure" Terra said. Lila glanced once more at Pentecost, who looked lightly amused, then led Terra to Knight's spot. "Knight, say hello to Terra" Lila said.

"Hello, Terra" Knight said. Terra's eyes widened. "Holy crap! He's talking! He's actually talking!" she said, excitedly.

"Terra will be your temporary pilot while I'm on leave" Lila said, looking from Terra to Knight.

"I see…I look forward to getting to know you, Terra" Knight said. Lila turned to Terra, who was still gawking at Knight. "I'll show you to your room" she said. She led Terra out of the hanger and to the barracks.

**They** rounded the corner and walked to the first room on the right—Mako's old room. Pentecost usually would bunk pilots in other rooms. But for some reason he's put her here. Lila hated the idea of putting her in Mako's room. She never knew Mako personally, but she didn't hated knowing someone else was in her room.  
Lila sighed and gave Terra the key. "This is it" she said, gesturing to the door. Terra nodded and walked into the room. "Thanks Lila!" Terra shouted as Lila left the barracks. Lila just casually waved back as she rounded the corner into the hallway.

Today's lunch table consisted of Lila, Raleigh, Terra, Herc, and Yancy. They chatted about random, odd-ball things to pass the time. They got on the subject of families when Terra said, "Do any of you have families outside of the Shatterdome?" Lila instantly glanced at Herc who smiled back at her. Then Lila looked up to Raleigh and Yancy. They still didn't seem to be getting along, and she sighed. "My mother lives in Sydney, where I grew up. I don't really have anyone else outside" Lila said to Terra.

"Yancy and Lila are the only family I got and they're both in here, so…" Raleigh said.

"My brother is the only one I got" Yancy said, clapping Raleigh's shoulder.

"What about you, Terra?" Lila asked. Terra flipped her hair behind her shoulder and rested her chin on her fist. "I have two kids, a husband, and my dog, Riley" she said. Lila was quiet after that. She didn't think Terra of all people would be a mom. She didn't look old enough. But then again, Lila is only twenty and she's expecting…

**Claus**, Sarah, Terra, Yancy, and Raleigh were all playing basketball after lunch. Lila sat at the nearest table to the game and watched, clapping when someone made the hoop and booing when someone missed. Herc sat beside her, doing the same. Max was asleep on the floor by Lila's feet, snoring loudly. "So," Herc said, breaking the silence. "How are you doing with having another Becket around?" Lila sighed and chuckled. "I honestly don't know. I mean, I'm happy because he's alive. But I'm also confused as to why he's only coming back now" she said, turning toward her father. Herc nodded in understanding and booed when Claus missed a shot. "That's understandable, seeing how the guy was dead for a decade" he said.

"And the weirdest part is Raleigh isn't happy. He's just irritated, and they keep butting heads" she said.

"You should have a talk with 'em about it. Sit 'em down and say, 'enough with the crap'" he suggested.

"Maybe…" she said, just before she heard someone call her name from behind. She twisted around and saw Dr. Geiszler rushing toward her. He stopped to the side of her, panting form running. "Miss Archer, I need you to come with me…right now" he said. Lila stood and followed him to the lab.

They entered the lab and Geiszler sprinted for his computer. He started typing vigorously and Lila stood beside him with a curious look on her face. "What is it?" she asked.

"Oh, um, I think I've finally figured out how Pentecost survived" he said.

"How?!" Lila said.

"With, like, a bazillion different animators and filters. But, long story short, he's not the only one with a faked death."

"Right, Yancy is back."

"Not just Yancy."

"Then who else? I don't really think it's possible t-" Lila stopped short when she saw what was on Dr. Geiszler's computer. "Oh" she said, under her breath. On the computer was a picture of a crowd of people on a sidewalk, near a busy street. In amongst the people was a familiar face, hidden under a blue ball cap. Lila blinked several times. "It can't be-"

"It is…"

"But, he was…he was dead. Like, completely *boom* dead!" she said, gesturing with her hands when she said 'boom'.

"Somehow he's alive and in Sydney. I didn't get a lot of clear footage but facial recognition _doesn't _lie" Geiszler said, looking from the computer to her shocked face.

"You're sure it's him?" she asked.

"Positive" he said, with a short nod.

"I better tell Pentecost about this…and Herc."


	22. Chapter 22

Lila hurried from the lab, trying not to look too suspicious, and went to Pentecost's office. She quickly knocked on the door and tapped her toes while she waited for a response. "Come in." she practically burst through the door and quickly shut it behind her. She faced Pentecost's desk.

He looked at her like she was some crazy person that barged into his office. "Sir, you _have_ to see this" she said, handing him her tablet with the picture on it. Pentecost took it and studied the photo. Then, when he realized who it was, he quickly looked up at her. "Lila…what is this?" he asked.

"What does it look like?! It's him, it's _Chuck_!" she said, gesturing wildly at the tablet.

"How?" he asked, ignoring her in-formal dialogue.

"Exactly how you survived."

"Is this legit?"

"Yes, sir" she said, slightly calming back down. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, briefly closing his eyes. Then he stood and walked around the desk. He gave her the tablet back and she looked at him expectantly. "Lila, we'll look into this. But it isn't likely-"

"Sir, respectfully, I disagree. I could go, just a few days, nothing big, just to scout it out. Please sir, if he really is out there…then I have a brother. _Please_" she begged. Pentecost stared at her as he thought it over. She didn't waver under his gaze, showing she's tough enough to do it. He sighed and looked away. "I'll consider it. For now, you don't breathe a word of this, understood?" she nodded and he held the door open as she walked out, with him right behind. He walked left down the hallway and Lila walked right, toward the Barracks.

**Lila** walked around the corner to the barracks and stopped when she saw Raleigh and Yancy talking. They looked like they were finally getting along. Reluctantly, Lila walked up to them, stopping their conversation. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow Yancy" she said.

"Why?" Yancy asked.

"I just do. Please, this is kind of important."

"Are lives at risk?" he asked.

"Um…I guess you could say that." he nodded and she led him to and empty hallway. She looked both ways before speaking. "Okay, you need to spill the beans. How did you survive?" she asked him. He raised an eyebrow. "_That_ was live-threatening?" he asked.

"I'm serious, Yancy" she whisper-yelled. "Is it possible that someone could survive a Jaeger accident like you did?" he thought about it a minute. "It depends on the accident" he said.

"Under water."

"How deep?"

"I don't know exactly but I know it was really, really deep."

"I guess it's possible…"

"I need specifics here. Like, 'how did you last so long out in the ocean?' And 'what was the first thing you did when you got back?' Or 'how did you take the news you were called dead?' things of that nature" she said, getting impatient. He saw the serious expression on her face and thought hard. "When I woke up I was deranged, seeing things. I just barely got the attention of a boat. But when I got back to civilization, the first thing I did was try to contact family or someone I knew could help me. That help?"

"Yes, but do you know how long you were under water?"

"Not specifically, no." Lila sighed in frustration. "What has got your panties in a wad?" he asked. For that she gave him a look. "I'm trying to do my job, mister 'It's classified'" she said, with a sarcastic tone.

"What job requires knowing these things?"

"Mine. I'm trying to get Pentecost to let me do something, so I need the facts. And you are the only one willing to talk about your accident" she said.

"Why do you need to know about the accident?"

"God you ask so many questions…look, I'm not supposed to say anything about it. I'm pushing my limits, here, asking you these questions. All I can tell you is it's a personal job this time, and it's important to me to get it done," she said. "Thank you for your time." She turned and headed for the lab.

**She** walked into the lab and stood by Dr. Geiszler at the 3D model. "I need you to trace phone calls from pay phones in a thirty mile radius of Sydney" she said.

"You think he called someone?" he asked, stepping over to his computer. Lila nodded and he started typing. "Maybe we can patch Knight into this? He has really thorough search engines that could be helpful" she suggested.

"I'll get him on it. I'll let you know if I find anything" he said. Lila nodded and turned, leaving the lab. As she walked she looked at the picture and the time stamp—three weeks ago. She sighed and tried to calm herself. She didn't like being overly-excited, it made her feel weird, and look unprofessional.

**She** walked to her room in the barracks and closed the door behind her. She sat on her bed after changing into shorts and a t-shirt and took out her ponytail. She couldn't think. The only thing on her mind was Chuck being alive. Her eyes couldn't be playing tricks, Newton saw it too. She sighed and dropped her head in her hands. She thought about her life and how twisted it's gotten…

She stood just as a knock on her door echoed through the room. She sighed and opened the door. She stood up straight when she saw Pentecost standing outside her door. "Yes, sir?" she asked.

"After much consideration, I've decided to send you to Sydney tomorrow, but I'm sending Yancy with you" he said.

"Yancy? May I ask why?"

"Because if Chuck is out there, and you find him, maybe Yancy could be of use" he said. Lila nodded and he turned and walked away. She shut the door and fell back on her bed. she sighed, exhausted, and closed her eyes.


	23. Chapter 23

**Lila** had packed an extra pair of clothes into a leather back pack, which now sat on her bed as she dressed. It was five Am, so she had at least an hour before she left, but she felt completely rushed. This was the first time in a long time she didn't know what to wear. She was going to Australia, she wanted to fit in but not stand out, and she didn't want to look stupid. So she went with: denim shorts, Camo tank top, light-weight green jacket, brown boots that fold at an inch or so above the ankle, and a straw fedora hat. She slung her pack over her shoulder and left the room.

**She **walked into the hanger—where they were supposed to meet and debrief. She spotted Raleigh talking with some mechanics, occasionally pointing at Gypsy Danger. She walked over to him as the mechanics walked away. "Whatcha doing?" she asked him, standing in front of him.

"Just discussing the repairs for Gypsy with the mechanics," he said. "What's with the getup?"

"I'm going to the outback. Gotta look the part…and I just wanted to dress up" she said, smiling.

"Be careful out there, okay?"

"Duh, I'm always careful. This is just a scout-out. I don't know what we're gonna find, if anything" she said.

"Lila! Over here, please" Pentecost said, as he stood next to Yancy on the other side of the hanger. Lila hugged Raleigh then jogged over to Pentecost. "This is a by-ear-duration trip. Let me know when and if you get a lead on anything. Wheels up in ten minutes" Pentecost said. Lila nodded and Pentecost walked off behind her. "Nervous?" Yancy asked her. She smirked at him. "You wish."

"A little, yeah, 'cause then you wouldn't seem like such a she-terminator" he said. Lila laughed and hit his arm. "Time to go" Pentecost said, rejoining them. Lila and Yancy walked out to the platform where a helicopter was waiting. As Yancy started for the helicopter, Dr. Geiszler stepped in front of Lila. She raised and eye brow and he pressed an ear piece into her palm. "This has a recording on it you'll want to hear" he said. She slipped it into her pocket. "Thanks" she said. He nodded and she jogged to the helicopter.

She pulled herself in and sat down across from Yancy. She strapped in as the propellers started turning. As they lifted off the platform, Lila put the ear piece in and pressed on it.

"_I know no one can hear me…but I just thought I'd try anyway. Um…I'm alive, I'm okay. Probably have seen the news already. They all think I'm dead. Everyone. I-I need you to hear me. Please, just…just pick up the phone,"_

Lila recognized the voice. She quickly pulled it out of her ear and slid it into her pocket. She didn't want to hear more, she couldn't. Yancy raised an eyebrow at her and she shook her head dismissively.

**They** landed north of Sydney in a grassy field. Lila and Yancy hopped out just before the helicopter flew away. Lila hiked her pack up on her shoulder and started walking south. "Do you even know where you're going?" Yancy called after her.

"Yes, I do" she said, over her shoulder. He sighed and reluctantly followed. They walked a mile before entering the city. Lila stood by the road in front of a coffee house and sighed. Yancy finally caught up to her and stood beside her. "Where to now G.I. Jane?" he asked, sarcastically.

"You're in my home now. I know this place like the back of my hand, but you're welcome to go get lost if you don't want to follow" she said. Lila started walking east on the sidewalk. She stopped several yards down and looked up at a street light. She pointed and said, "That's the traffic cam." She turned east and started walking. "Come on, pretty boy!" she shouted. Yancy shook his head and followed her.

**As** she walked, Lila used her iPhone to search out hotels and apartments near the traffic cam. Yancy fell into step beside her and sighed. "Are you always this bossy?" he asked.

"Only to you," she said. "There are three places to check within two miles of the traffic cam. Which one should we check first?" he looked over her shoulder at the phone. "You go to New Leaf; I'll go to Harbor Souls. It's best if we split up" he said.

"This is me, then," she said, as they stopped in front of a small hotel. "Where do we meet? In the middle?"

"Sure" he said, starting to walk off. She sighed and rolled her eyes. She walked into the hotel. Everything was white, except for the modern-style furniture and dark wood check-in desk. She shoved her phone into her back pocket and walked up to the desk. A cheery woman behind the counter smiled. "Good day, how can I help you?" she asked.

"Hi," Lila said, letting her accent slip through her words. "I was wondering if you might be able to help me find someone that might be staying here."

"And who might that be?"

"…He's an ex-fiancée. See, he ran out on me at the altar and-"

"Say no more. What's his name?" Lila smiled inwardly at her charade. "Um, his name is Chuck, but he's probably using a name close to that so I can't find him" Lila said. The woman typed on her computer quickly. "Two rooms—three zero eight, and two twenty. Level eight and level six, accordingly" She said.

"Thank you, so much!" Lila said. She turned and spotted the stairs. She jogged to the stairs and took then two at a time. She reached level six and opened the door, revealing a long hallway with doors on both sides. Lila walked down the hallway, checking every door number, until she reached two twenty. She hesitantly knocked a few times on the door. A minute later the door opened, an older man with gray hair standing behind it. "Oh…sorry, wrong room" Lila said. She ran back to the stairwell and started upward.

**She** reached level eight and walked into the hallway. She searched the doors as she passed until room three zero eight. She sighed and knocked on the door. She waited for what seemed like an hour before the door opened partially, the chain lock strung from the wall to the door. A younger man stood behind the door with only half his face visible. The half she could see was obviously Chuck. "Who are you?" he asked.

"Funny, I was just about to ask you that" she said.

"Well, why don't you answer first?"

"My name's Lila. I'm a…friend, of your dad's" she said. His face changed from a guarded look to a calm look. "My dad?" he asked.

"Yes…I'm not here to harass you or anything. I just want to talk" she said. He closed the door and she heard a clicking noise. He opened the door all the way a minute later. Lila fought a gasp, seeing the other side of his face. A red scar ran across his left eye and another across his cheek. Several little scars littered his face. "You wanna come in or are you gonna stand there starring?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry" she said, stepping inside. He shut the door and walked around her into the living area. She slowly walked to a couch by a window and sat down. He just stood with his arms crossed. "You said you know my dad…?" he said.

"Yeah, he doesn't know I'm here."

"Why _did_ you come?"

"To find you, actually. A traffic cam got a picture of you that the system picked up-"

"The system? You mean you're with the PPDC?" he asked, getting aggravated.

"Yes, but that's not why I'm here-"

"Then why are you here?" he said, raising his voice.

"Because I'm your sister" she blurted.

"I don't have a sister" he said, quietly.

"Your dad…is my dad. We don't have the same mother, but we have the same father" she said, standing.

"You don't even look like him. You don't have an accent, either."

"Well," she said, pulling out her accent again. "I do have an accent, and I _dyed_ my hair brown. It may seem crazy, but you can ask your dad. He'd say I was telling the truth. Did he ever mention Piper?"

"Once or twice…"

"That's me. My real name is Piper _Hansen_. Lila is my alias" she said, sliding her hands in her pockets. He was quiet, starring out the window. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Is that all you came here to say?" he asked.

"Um…no…I may not know you, but I heard the phone call you made. Do you still want your dad to pick up the phone?" she asked. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed a secure number. She held out the phone to him. "Take it. He's on the other end" she said. He took it hesitantly and walked into another room. Lila sat back down and dropped her head in her hands.

**A** while later, he came back out and she stood. He gave her the phone back. "I guess I do have a sister" he said. Lila smiled half-heartedly. "No skin off my nose if you don't want me. just thought I'd share the wealth" she said.

"You have a place to stay tonight?"

"Uh…no, not exactly."

"You're staying here."

"I have a plus one, is that okay?"

"Depends, who is it?"

"Yancy Becket" she said. Chuck sighed. "I just can't get away from them," he muttered. "Yeah, that's fine." Lila couldn't help herself. She stepped forward and hugged him. She quickly stepped back. "Sorry…I get carried away. I'm gonna go call Yancy" she said. She walked outside the room and shut the door.


	24. Chapter 24

Lila turned off her phone after updating Pentecost on the situation and slid it into her pocket. Yancy and Chuck were talking—more like arguing quietly—by the door. Lila stood and walked to them, and they stopped talking. "We go back tomorrow morning" she said.

"And here I was just starting to like Chuck" Yancy said, sarcastically. Lila sighed and rolled her eyes. "If you don't fight, you're golden" she said, turning around. She sat on the couch and Chuck followed. Lila raised an eyebrow at him. "Am I supposed to call you Lila or Piper?" he asked.

"Lila" she said.

"Where were you born?"

"Here, in Sydney."

"Did you live here?"

"For a while, until I was fourteen, when I left…"

"Did dad ever live with you?"

"Um…not really. He would visit every weekend until I was four. Then I never saw him again. I was too little to really remember him well anyway."

"How did you know who he was?"

"My mother kept information from me; she only said 'he was a Jaeger pilot and that it was safer not to know him'. I 'knew' him before I actually met him because my step-uncle told me all about the Jaegers and their pilots. I didn't know for sure he was my dad until about four years ago" she said.

"Are you two friends?" he asked, staring at his hands.

"Chuck…he's not gonna love you any less just because I'm here. We're not that close" she said, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I know…" he said, nodding and looking at her.

"You don't look like you know that."

"It's…just hard to process. I mean, my dad has always been someone I look up to—don't tell him I said that. And now he has another kid…from someone other than my mom. And he kept it from me, too. I don't get it, he could have told me, but he kept it a secret. It's like there's this whole other side of him I never knew, and I'm only just now hearing about it, when everyone else already knows" he said, shaking his head angrily.

"If it makes you feel any better, I never knew my mother was aspiring to high jack my Jaeger and take over the world until now. And I'm pretty sure my whole family knew she was like that" she said. He chuckled, making her smile a little. "She's trying to take over the world?" he asked, trying not to laugh. "Sounds like she's dad's type." They both laughed at that. Yancy looked at them like they were crazy. "What?" Lila asked. He shrugged shaking his head. "Nothing" he said. Lila remembered something and turned back to Chuck. "I forgot to tell you, I'm getting married" she said.

"To who?" he asked.

"Raleigh Becket" she said.

"You're kidding…" he mumbled. "He's going to be my half step-brother?"

"I know, I feel sorry for you, man" Yancy said.

"Oh, now you two are friends?" Lila asked, looking between them.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend…" Yancy said. Lila scoffed and rolled her eyes. "So you both think Raleigh is your enemy?" they both nodded. "So…what if Raleigh and I had kids? Would they be your enemy, too?" she asked. Yancy looked at her with an _oh-crap_ expression and Chuck just looked confused. "Please tell me you're not saying what I think you're saying" Yancy said.

"What if I was?" she asked, challengingly.

"_Really_?" Lila crossed her arms. "Yes" she said.

"Whoa, you're _pregnant_?" Chuck asked her.

"Yeah, but don't go telling everyone. Only a few people know—you, Yancy, Raleigh, dad, and Pentecost."

"Found out if it's a boy or girl yet?"

"No…"

"Wanna make a bet out of it? It'll give us something to do" Yancy suggested.

"Guys, don't-"

"Okay, what are the stakes?" Chuck asked.

"Winner gets the joy of winning and the loser…"

"Has to mop the hanger for a week" Chuck said. Yancy snapped his fingers. "Perfect. What do you bet it'll be?"

"Knowing Raleigh I'd say it'll be a girl" Chuck said. Lila rolled her eyes. "And I'm going with it's going to be a boy. So it's settled. If it's a girl you win, if it's a boy I win" Yancy said.

"Are you two happy now?" Lila asked.

"Not even close" Chuck said, sarcastically.


	25. Chapter 25

**Lila** woke up when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She sighed and pulled her phone out, shutting it off. She hated setting alarms. They annoyed her. She put the phone back in her pocket and looked down off the couch. Below her, Yancy slept on the floor. She shook his shoulder. "Yancy…Yancy get up" she said, shaking him. He slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes briefly. "It's six. Pick up's at eight" Lila said, sitting up. She stood and stretched as she yawned. "I hate getting up early" Yancy mumbled, as he stood.

**Lila** smoothed out her hair with her hands and put her hat back on. She walked to the bedroom and knocked on the door. Nothing happened and she knocked again. She was just about to knock again when Chuck opened the door. "We've got to leave in, like, five minutes if we want to be at the pick-up spot on time" she said. He sighed, mumbling something under his breath, as he walked back into his room.

**Lila** walked back to the couch and grabbed her jacket. She put it on and slung her back pack over her shoulders. A minute later Chuck walked out to the living room with a duffel bag. "He's coming?" Yancy asked. "Yeah" is all Lila said.

**They** left the room and walked down stairs to the lobby. Chuck checked out and they left the hotel. Lila led the way through Sydney and out of the city. Just outside the city was a horse rental. Lila stopped and smirked. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Chuck asked from beside her. She nodded and they walked over to the rental. A man stood by four horses. He smiled as Lila approached. "What can I do for ya?" he asked.

"We need three horses, please" she said. They got the horses and led them back over to where Yancy was just walking to. He'd been behind the whole time and he only just now caught up. He frowned when he saw the horses. "Seriously?" he asked. Lila gave him the reins to a brown horse and smiled. "Dead serious" she said, turning to her horse. She pulled herself up into the saddle just after Chuck got on his horse. Yancy sighed and got on his horse. "You're crazy" he said to Lila.

"Yeah, well, now you don't have a reason for lagging behind. And this is the fastest way to get around, if you don't have a Land Rover" she said.

"You've ridden horses, then?"

"Yep. Besides a Land Rover, it's the best way to get to Hell's Canyon" she said, urging her horse forward.

"_Hell's Canyon_?" he asked, following after her.

"It's actually really beautiful. I don't know why they named it Hell's Canyon," she said, over her shoulder. "We'll get to the pick-up spot thirty minutes earlier than we would walking."

"Oh, well then, let's just ride horses into the outback without a map or directions of any kind…_if_ it'll get us there thirty minutes faster" Yancy said, sarcastically. Lila rolled her eyes.

They arrived at the pick-up spot a while later. Lila pulled her horse to a stop. "This is it," she looked at her phone clock. "We're fifteen minutes early." Yancy got off his horse. "Let's just hurry up and get out of this god forsaken wasteland" he said. Lila and Chuck exchanged amused glances then Lila twisted around to see Yancy. "You're not an outdoor person, are you?" she asked.

"What gave you that idea?" he asked, sarcastically.

"Don't people camp in America?" Chuck asked.

"Yes, of course they camp. Just not _everyone_" he said. Lila looked up and scanned the sky for the helicopter. A second later she saw the black spec that was the helicopter. She got off her horse and so did Chuck. A few minutes later the helicopter landed and they got in. Lila and Chuck sat on the right side and Yancy sat on the left. They strapped in and took off.

**The** helicopter landed on the platform. Yancy, Lila, and Chuck hopped out and ran inside the hanger because it was raining. Once they were inside, Lila took off her hat and rung out her wet hair. She put her hat back on and Pentecost walked up to them. He stood with his hands loosely folded behind his back and he looked over all three of them. "Welcome back" Pentecost said to Chuck. Chuck simply nodded. "Go get changed" Pentecost said. Yancy and Lila went to the Level one barracks and Chuck went to level two.

**Lila** walked into her room and shut the door. She dropped her pack by her bed and went into the bathroom. She showered then got dressed after drying her hair. She walked to the mess hall where all the pilots were sitting and talking. Lila sat at the usual table with Yancy, Raleigh, Terra, and Herc. Herc smiled at her. "You could make a living reuniting families" he said.

"Probably" she said. He chuckled and put his arm around her shoulders. "Thank you, Lila" he said.

"No problem, dad" she said. Lila looked at the door just as Chuck walked in. "dad…" she said. Herc stood and walked to his son and hugged him. The room was filled with loud clapping. Herc turned and said, "Lila, get over here." Lila hesitantly stood and walked over. She was roped into the hug as soon as she was close enough. After a minute they all stepped back and sat at the table. The room was once again filled with talking and a hundred-mile-an-hour conversations. "We've almost got the whole gang back together" Chuck said. Lila instantly looked up at Raleigh, whose sad eyes didn't match his smile.

Lila grabbed his hand under the table, making him look at her. "I'm sorry" she said. He shrugged. "It's fine. It's been three years, I should be over it by now" he said.

"But you're not…I'm here if you need to talk about it" she said. He ran his thumb across her knuckles and smiled at her. "I'll keep that in mind" he said.

They all talked around the table for a long time, constantly switching topics. They talked about anything and everything to pass time. After a while, Yancy, Raleigh, Chuck, and some of the other pilots went to play basketball, leaving Lila and Terra at the table. "Have you talked to Knight at all, Terra?" Lila asked.

"Not much. But I have a little. He seems nice" Terra said.

"You two should get along well."

"Speaking of 'Getting Along' I just noticed your ring" Terra said.

"Oh, yeah, I'm engaged. Forgot to mention that" Lila said.

"Who's the hubby?" Terra asked, taking a sip of her water. Lila chuckled at her words. "Raleigh" she said.

"I figured. You two are a cute couple," Terra said, glancing at the game. "Are you gonna have any kids?"

"Yeah, at least one" she replied. Terra nearly spit out her water. "Why the specifics? Are you…OMG, are you pregnant?" Terra asked, hushing her voice. Lila sighed and nodded. "Holy crap, congrats Lila."

"Thanks, Terra" Lila said.

"Have you thought of names?"

"I haven't really had time."

"If you want any ideas," Terra said, standing. "Just come find me." Terra left the mess hal, leaving Lila alone at the table.


	26. Chapter 26

"**You mean a party?" Pentecost asked. **

"No, no, sir. A small gathering to celebrate our good fortune" Lila said. Pentecost sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Where would this be held?" he asked, humoring her.

"The mess hall…?" he sighed again. "Because of the unique nature of our situation, I will consider it and get back to you" he said. She nodded thankfully and left his office. Chuck was waiting outside and held out his hands when she shut the door. "What'd he say?" he asked.

"He said he's get back to me. But, hey, it's better than 'no' right?" she said.

"I guess" he said, with a shrug. She began walking down the hallway and he threw an arm around her shoulder, walking in step with her. "You want something, don't you?" she asked.

"How'd you guess?" he asked, flashing a smile at her.

"Out with it" she urged. He sighed. "Okay, so I'm not 'of clearance' to be in any of the loading rooms, and I was wondering if you could-"

"Get you in? Which Jaeger?"

"Dark Knight." She stopped in her tracks, pulling him to a stop with her. "Why the hell do you want to poke your nose around Knight?" she asked, curiously yet seriously.

"The thing has crazy processors that could help me answer a question" he said.

"What question?"

"Like I'm gonna tell you" he said.

"I might be able to work something, but I'd have to be in the room with you" she said. He sighed exhaustively. "Fine, work your magic, sis" he said, before turning and walking down the hall. She shook her head before turning on her heels and walked the other way. She hated walking around the Shatterdome. It was such a long trek from point A to point B, and her stomach was growing and getting heavier…

**She** rounded the corner into the control room just as sirens went off and lights started flashing. She hurried into her seat, alongside Tendo. She put in her ear piece and changed her screen to the news. She gaped. A level five Kaiju was attacking West Australia with a vengeance. It tore through buildings and threw pieces of structure miles away. She was just in Australia. Where the Kaiju was attacking.

**She **snapped out of her trance and called the best Jaeger they had at the moment into action—Continental Drift. The Drift pilots were unavailable so Yancy and Raleigh were in the con-pod instead. "They're strapped in. commencing drift" Tendo said. Lila held her breath, anticipating the train-wreck about to come. The vitals regulated and fell into sync faster than you can say 'drift'. And that's pretty fast. Continental Drift was taxied out onto the platform and lifted, heading for Australia.

**On the edge of Australia**, the Kaiju's left arm crashed through a tall building as it turned at the sound of Continental Drift dropping. Debris fell everywhere around the Kaiju as it charged out of the city, toward the Jaeger. Continental Drift charged forward, blade ready, and clashed with the Kaiju. The blade sunk into the side of the Kaiju but it hardly phased the monster's rampage. It shoved the Jaeger back a foot and whipped its spiked tail at the machine's torso.

The tail slammed into the heart of the Jaeger and it stumbled back. A giant crater ripped across the metal of the torso, now. Continental Drift charged forward and planted it's shoulder into the Kaiju, pushing it back like a child pushes a toy stroller, all the way to the water on the other side of the bay. The Kaiju fell back into the water, only to stand a minute later.

It lurched forward, loosing it's massive teeth, then biting down on the Jaeger's neck/shoulder. It ripped out most of it's mechanics, leaving the head standing by a thread, and went after the rest of it. It ripped out most of the insides in the torso then slammed it's fist into the side of the Jaeger's head—Raleigh's side.

**In the control room**, Lila was having a proverbial heart attack watching the Kaiju and the Jaeger duel it out. The fist crashed into Raleigh's side of the con-pod and all eyes were on her, watching for her reaction. She stood, not caring if they saw her freak out, and gasped. Her eyes were wide as she watched the fight on the main screen next to Pentecost and Herc. She covered her mouth with her hands and fought a scream.

**On the edge of Australia**, the Kaiju bellowed it's fury as it tore out most of the left shoulder, leaving both arms useless. Suddenly a sharp spear slid into the Kaiju's back, causing a screech from the creature. Several yards behind the Kaiju was an unmarked Jaeger. It was snow-Camo and looked just like Knight. The Kaiju fell backward, dead. The unmarked Jaeger turned and disappeared into the water. Continental Drift stood a second, then fell back, crashing into what remained of a building.

**In the control room**, Tendo informed Pentecost that the Becket brothers were being transported to a hospital for injuries. "I'm going" Lila said, turning and starting for the door.

"On who's authority?" Pentecost asked.

"He's my fiancée," she said, stopping and turning around. "What do you expect me to do? Stay here in the dome and pray he's okay? No, I don't think so." She stormed out of the control room and Pentecost glared at Herc. "What? I can't help it if the girl's got balls" Herc said, shrugging.

**A while later**, the helicopter landed on the Heli-pad atop the hospital Yancy and Raleigh were taken to. Lila and Pentecost jumped out of the helicopter and Lila practically ran to the stairs, taking them two at a time down to the lobby. She burst through the door, and ran to the front desk. "Hi, there were two Jaeger pilots brought in here. Where are they?" Lila asked. The woman behind the desk pointed down a hallway to the left. "Down the hall and to the left is the ER waiting room. You'll find one of them there" she said. ER? She thought. She smiled and they jogged down the hallway and turned left.

**Around the corner **was a small waiting room with black chairs lining the walls. In one of those chairs was Yancy, slumped over with his hands buckled over his head. "What happened?" Lila asked, walking to him. She stood by him as he looked up. He stood quickly. "Lila, I tried t-"

"Don't you dare try and calm me right now, because if you do, you might not come away whole. Just tell me what the hell happened" she said, as Pentecost rounded the corner into the waiting room.

"Something happened when the Kaiju bit the right shoulder, Raleigh couldn't think anymore. Then the Kaiju hit his side and…" Yancy's words trailed off, and Lila noticed how cut up he was. Cuts littered his face, neck, and hands. She sighed and motioned for him to sit. They both sat and Pentecost took a seat across from them. The only thing they could do now, was wait. 


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: **I will try to update faster I'm speed typing to fill your request! Thank you guys for reviewing, it means a lot to me!

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

** Lila**, Yancy, and Pentecost sat in the waiting room quietly. Yancy stared out the window, Pentecost looked around aimlessly, and Lila kept playing with her hands. She'd wanted to say several things, but she just couldn't. She feared if she said anything she'd start crying. The only time she really cried was when she was angry. She never cried out of despair—that hurt her too much. She took a deep breath and turned to Yancy. "I don't blame you," she said, her voice heavy. He glanced at her then looked back out the window. "There was nothing you could have done different…and no matter how much I want to blame someone for this, it wasn't your fault."

"As much as I want to believe that, I _could_ have done something" he said.

"No don-don't do that, don't blame yourself. You could blame me, too, then, because I could've sent another Jaeger, but I didn't. It's both our faults" she said, settling back into her chair. It was quiet, except for the occasional nurse or doctor walking by. Lila had enough of the quiet and decided to pace back and forth instead of sitting and listening to it. As she turned and started back toward her chair, Chuck rounded the corner to the waiting room. Lila stopped, before walking to him and hugging him.

She felt like crying. Just letting go and crying. But she couldn't, she had to stay strong. He returned her hug, holding his sister tightly. "You okay?" he asked her.

"No" she whispered. She stepped back and half-heartedly smiled before sitting back down in her chair. He sat beside her and she started chewing her nails. Chuck noticed this and stole her hand, holding it so she couldn't chew on it. She sighed and tried to relax. It didn't work.

She found it hard to sit still. She was tired of waiting—they had been there for three hours and no news of his condition. This made her think, _it must have been really bad to take this long_. That thought made her want to cry more, making fighting tears that much harder. But, after what seemed like another three hours, a doctor came out to the waiting room. Everyone stood at attention. "Are you all Raleigh Becket's family?" the doctor asked. Pentecost nodded and the doctor continued.  
"The nerve damage that he had suffered in accidents prior caused this to be much more severe than it could have been. He's suffered several shocks to the Brachial Plexus—the central nerve of the arm. It could cost him movement in his right arm, to some extent.  
There were several shards of shrapnel lodged in his body that took several stitches, and those will take several weeks to heal enough for full movement. Long story short, his body is in shock right now. There was enough cerebral trauma to cause a short comatose state, but he's come out of it nicely."

"He'll live right?" Lila asked.

"Yes…but there are some concerns we're still looking over as far as movement. He will be restricted for a while, and that might not go over very well when he wakes up" the doctor said.

"When can we see him?" Lila asked.

"You can come back right now if you'd like" he said.

He led them through two doors and down a hallway. They rounded the corner then entered a room. "He'll be asleep for a while longer," the doctor said, holding the door for them.

"Thank you" Pentecost said, giving him a dismissive nod. The doctor half-smiled then left them alone. Raleigh was lying in a hospital bed in the center of the small room. Lila inhaled sharply as she looked over bandages on him. They covered most of the right side of his face. And there was no exposed skin on his right arm. Lila pulled over a chair and sat down, keeping her eyes on him.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Yancy beside her. She knew he was feeling the same thing she was: helplessness—among other things: despair, self-blame, pain, and most of all they felt broken. He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze then let it slide away. Lila kept her eyes on Raleigh—the occasional flutter of his eyelids, the up and down of his chest—anything to keep her mind on the positive instead of the negative.

The doctor said he'd be asleep a while, but she still kept telling herself, 'any minute, he'll open his eyes'. It became her mantra in her head. Yancy sat in a chair on the other side of him and Chuck pulled up a chair next to Lila's. "He's gonna be okay, Lila" he said.

"I know…I know," she said, more trying to convince herself than Chuck. She started crying. "I know…it's just hard to believe." Chuck put an arm around her shoulders and held her close to him as she cried. Despite what everyone thinks, he really does care about her. He hated seeing her cry, though he'd only seen it once or twice. Pentecost stayed by the door, giving them some space.

**Several hours later**, it was dark outside. Pentecost had left a while ago. Yancy was the only one awake and he glanced at the clock on the wall. _3:00 AM_. He sighed and looked across the bed at Lila and Chuck. _They look ridiculous_, he thought. They were in the same position as earlier, just asleep. They had sat there for hours, the only sound being Lila crying, until she finally just fell asleep. He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, fighting the urge to sleep. It'd been a hard day for everyone, but he wasn't going to sleep so easily.

**After another hour or so**, Lila woke up. She carefully sat up without waking Chuck and rubbed her red eyes. She looked to Yancy and asked, "Anything?" he shook his head and she sighed. She rested her chin on her fist and her eyes again glued to Raleigh. "He's gonna wake up, Lila" Yancy said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"What is your problem?" she asked, sitting up straight. "All you can ever do is complain or be a complete asshole."

"You don't know me, so don't act like you do."

"I'm not! I'm acting like the man I love is in a hospital bed, and I don't know when or if he'll wake up!" she said, angrily.

"He's going to wake up, Lila. You don't have to be all stuck-like-glue."

"Go to hell!" she shouted. Chuck promptly woke up and looked between both of them. "What's going on?" he asked.

"I'll go to hell when you get your head out of the sand" Yancy said, ignoring Chuck.

"What is that supposed to mean? My head is not in the sand!"

"All you do is run around acting like you own the place, completely oblivious to everything around you!"

"That is such _bull_!"

"Will you two stop it?!" Chuck shouted, looking at both of them.

"She started-"

"Yancy, if you value your head I suggest you back off" Chuck growled.

"You wanna make me?" Yancy challenged. Chuck started to get up when Lila pulled him back down. "Don't" she said to Chuck. He wanted so badly to rip his head off his shoulders, but he reluctantly stayed put as Lila asked. She sighed exhaustively and turned to Yancy. "I don't care what you think you see when you look at me. But you have no idea what what you're seeing is."


	28. Chapter 28

**Everyone** had calmed down and regained their composer. They'd spent a painful six hours together before Raleigh woke up. Lila quickly stood and so did Yancy. Raleigh half-smiled. "If I knew there'd be people here I would have dressed better" he said, his voice cracking.

"Well, you know, we can come back later if this is a bad time…" Yancy said, sarcastically gesturing to the door. Raleigh lightly hit his brother in response. "How do you feel?" Lila asked.

"Like crap" he said.

"At least you're not verbally changed," she said. "Don't know about the rest of you, though."

"You guys are just a bunch of jokers, aren't you?" Raleigh asked. Yancy shrugged. "I try," he said. "But, uh, I'm gonna give you two a minute to…talk…" he turned and walked out of the room. Lila sat on the bed beside Raleigh. "You scared me. I thought you were going to die" she said. Raleigh caressed her cheek with his left hand. "I'm sorry" he said.

"You're sorry? You are the one in the hospital, and you're sorry? I should be the one apologizing."

"Why?"

"Because I could've sent another Jaeger to help, but I didn't."

"It's not your fault, Lila. It's no one's fault but my own." She leaned down and kissed his forehead, then rested her forehead on his. "I love you" she said.

"I love you, too" he said.

"I can't believe I haven't said that until now" she said. He chuckled and ran his hand through her hair. She gently kissed his lips and he chuckled. "Come on, I'm not _that_ broken" he said, sarcastically. She rolled her eyes and kissed him again, deeper than before. There was a knock and Lila turned around. She stood quickly with wide eyes. "M-mom?" she asked. The woman standing by the door was just slightly taller than Lila, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. "Hello, Piper" she said. Her voice sounded older than she looked. "What are you doing here?" Lila asked.

"I know this isn't the best time, but I need to talk to you."

"Talk? About what? How you knew I was going to leave you and Hank and you let me go? How you are creating A.I.'s to take over the world? Or how I have a million other reasons to say no?"

"Piper, please. We've gone over this. I know you want nothing to do with me, but I _need _to talk to you" she said.

"I'll be right back" Lila said to Raleigh. She reluctantly walked with her mother out of the room and they stood in the hall. Lila crossed her arms and frowned. "What do you want?" she asked.

"I know you won't believe me, but I'm in way over my head."

"You chose the lab over family, which was your decision. Now you've got to live with it" Lila said.

"Piper-"

"It's Lila now. Another thing you never wanted—my middle name." her mother sighed deeply. "_Lila_, I am serious! When they're done with me they will come after you. You think I'm doing this because I want to? Well, you thought wrong," she said. "I let you go to protect you. I know you don't see it that way, but I don't care. This will save your life." her mother pressed a small, black triangle into her palm. "What is it?" Lila asked.

"Knight will know. I have to go before they trace me back to you. Just know I love you, Piper" she said. Lila looked down at the triangle then back up and her mother was gone. She looked both ways down the hallway and didn't see her. She ran her thumb over the smooth surface of the triangle then slid it into her pocket.


	29. Chapter 29

**Once back at the Shatterdome**, Lila hurried to Knight's con-pod. As she stepped inside Knight said, "Hello, Lila."

"Knight, I need you to tell me what this is" she said, holding out the triangle from her mother. A green light flushed over the triangle briefly. "It is a carbon fiber density metal I am unable to trace" he said.

"Do you know my mother? Er-your creator?"

"Yes, I do."

"She gave me this. What does it mean to you? She said it would save my life."

"It will indeed save your life. I know now if it has come from my creator, it is only a fragment," he was quiet a moment. "There are five other pieces. This is just one." Lila sighed in frustration. "But what is it?"

"It is one piece to a six piece key, which is the command control for the Artificial Intelligence inside my control box. Whoever has these pieces, controls me and others like me."

**Lila** hurried from the con-pod to the control room. Herc and Pentecost were there, talking about repairs, when she walked in. she quickly walked up to them and held up the triangle. "Sir, does this look familiar to you?" she asked Pentecost. He squinted at it, obviously trying to remember something. He shook his head. "What is it?" Herc asked her.

"It's a piece to the command control of the A.I. system. There are five others just like this" she said.

"I wasn't aware there was a command control for the system" Pentecost said, folding his arms across his chest.

"It must have been a fail-safe or something."

"Where'd you get it, sweetheart?" Herc asked.

"My mother" Lila said.

"Marina? Where did you speak?" Pentecost asked.

"At the hospital. She said this would save my life. And she said she wasn't doing this because she wanted to. She was being forced to mass-produce the A.I. to protect me…and the stupid thing is, is that I believe her" Lila said. Herc glanced at Pentecost as if to say '_what do we do_?' "Get that to the lab and have Dr. Geiszler analyze it" Pentecost said. Lila nodded and left the control room.

**She entered the lab** and walked to the computer where Dr. Geiszler was messing with some kind of tubing. The tubes were wrapped around his arms and he was pulling at them to no avail. "Oh, hey, Miss Archer. Sorry…about this…I'll have these off in a jiff" he said, pulling at them. Lila sighed and grabbed the end of the tube that was dangling down. She pulled on it and the tubes fell off his arms. He stood there a second, dumbfounded, and she gave him a 'Really? You didn't think of that?' look. He sighed and picked up the tubes, dropping them on the table next to his computer. "What do you need?" he asked her.

"I need this analyzed" she said, handing him the triangle. He looked at it a minute, holding it up to the light to try and see through it, and then turning to his computer. "I'll have _this_ done in a jiff" he said, with an embarrassed smile. Lila nodded and walked to her room. She quickly changed into something clean. She had just slid her shirt over her head when someone knocked on the door. She slowly opened it to see Terra standing outside her door. "Oh, hi, Terra" Lila said.

"Hey, Lila. I heard what happened, well, everyone heard what happened, but anyway I just wanted to see if you were okay" Terra said.

"That's very nice of you. I'm fine, except for the cryptic message from my mom."

"You talked with your mom? Spill, girl!" Lila pulled Terra into her room and shut the door. They sat on the bed. "She just said she wasn't doing anything by choice and that this weird triangle thingy would save my life" Lila said. Terra crossed her legs Indian style and smirked. "You know what this means right?" Lila shook her head. "This means, not only does your mom still care about you, but you have just one more piece to the puzzle that is your existence" she said.

"You know, you can really smart when you want to be."

"Gee, thanks. I'll remember that" she said, making an _I'm-dumb_ face. Lila laughed. "That's not what I meant!" she said.

"I know geez! Loosen up, girl!" Terra said, shaking Lila's shoulders playfully.

"Fine! Fine, just stop!" she said. Terra let go of her and they both smiled. "So, wanna talk about baby names?" Lila sighed. "We'll start with girls" Lila said. Terra smiled and started spewing. They talked about every single name you could think of. Terra was laying half on, half off the bed when she mentioned the name 'Abigail'. Lila propped herself up on her elbows. "Hmmm…that's pretty" she said.

"It's a Hebrew name. Can't remember what it means, though" Terra said. Lila rolled over on her stomach. "Don't tell anyone this, but Yancy and Chuck made a bet on what gender the baby will be" she said.

"What?" Terra asked, slightly pulling herself up.

"Yeah. I'm hoping Chuck wins so Yancy has to mop the Hanger for a week. The guy is a jerk."

"What's his deal, anyway?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he's suffering from some kind of PTSD?"

"You know, that's probably it. My sister was in a really bad wreck, and she had some PTSD."

"Your sister pilots, too?"

"Yeah, she's coming to this Shatterdome in a few months. But anyway, you should try and talk to Yancy. I mean, sure you didn't start it, but you should still be the bigger person and talk to him." Lila slumped forward onto the bed. "Why me?" she asked, her voice muffled. Terra laughed and pulled herself up. "I'm sure it'll be easy. You're good at talking to people, use that. And whatever you do, don't get angry" she said. Lila sighed and sat up, swinging her legs off the bed. "Thanks Terra" she said. They both stood and walked to the door.

Lila opened the door and they both walked out. Yancy walked out of his room at the same time and Terra glanced back Lila. "Speak of the devil" Lila mumbled. Terra patted Lila's shoulder then high-tailed it out of the barracks. Lila sighed and walked across the hall to Yancy. "We need to talk" she said.

"About what?" he asked.

"About that fact we can't get along."

"We're not BFFs that when they have a fight talk about it afterward."

"Yancy, seriously, you think I want to talk to you? I don't. But if we keep arguing Chuck's going to try and kill you and I don't think we need another death. I know you don't like me…and that's perfectly okay, really. You have a right to your opinion as much as anybody. But you could at least try and keep those dislikes to yourself, just like I'll try not to voice my dislikes about you."

"You're calling a truce?"

"In this line of work we can't be arguing. And if a truce is what we need to stop, then yeah, I'm calling a truce," she said. "We'll both make a point to not talk to each other, but when we have to, we act civil. Deal?"

"And what if I say no?" he asked, sarcastically.

"Then I'll have to lock you in a room with Chuck for an hour" she said, equally as sarcastic.

"Fine, deal" he said, with fake distain.


	30. Chapter 30

Lila never really made it a habit of leaving the Shatterdome—she was always too busy. But she needed to leave, not only to get her mind off things of late, but to talk with someone. She loathed going to her home town, but it was the only place to find her family. She got out of the taxi and shut the door. She stared up the dirt drive at the small house that once seemed so big. The house sat on twenty acres of green grass and trees. There was a barn to the right of the house and a garage to the left of it. The garage and house were painted white with black trim and a red door.

She walked up the drive to the steps and hesitantly walked up them. She still wasn't sure this idea would blow up in her face or not, seeing how she hadn't spoken to anyone but her uncle and mother since she was fourteen. She took a deep breath and opened the screen door to knock on the door. She knocked and stepped back. A few minutes later the door opened revealing a boy that looked not a day over sixteen. He had brown hair, like her mother's, and the eyes of her step father. "Hi, Adam" she said.

"Hi…Piper. What're you doin' here?" he asked.

"I'm standing on the porch wishing I was inside" she said.

"Oh right. Come in" he said, sidestepping. Lila walked past him into the house. The inside was a bright yellow with light, crème furniture. _Mom redecorated_, she thought. Adam closed the door and walked past her into the living room where two boys his age were sitting on the couch with their eyes glued to the TV, controllers in their hands, moving back and forth. Lila stood in the archway between the hallway that led to the stairs and the living room. "Do you know if mom or dad is home?" she asked Adam. He shook his head. "I don't know what they do anymore" he muttered.

Lila sighed and walked downstairs. There was a 'den' under the first level of the house they often hung out in. it looked empty as she walked to the door on the other side. There was a digital key pad beside the knob. She typed in the code—_**5550129**_—and opened the door. Inside was a large room her mother used as her laboratory. There were tables that lined the walls and two in the center as an island. They were all cluttered with computers and machines.

Lila ran a finger across the openness of the island and it came up coated in dust. She looked around once more and stopped. There was something out of place. She couldn't tell what it was, but she knew something wasn't right. She'd said she believed her mother when she said it was forced, but now she was second guessing everything. Her mother and father weren't home, there was dust coating the lab, and the boys were left alone for who knew how long.

She checked the computers, but they were all off. They were never off because her mother was always using them. She sighed as she ran her hand under the lip of the tables. On the left side wall table, there was a click when her hand caught something. She stopped and knelt down, looking under the table. On the underside was a black keypad.

She tried several different common passwords her mother used…but none worked. She sat in front of the table, trying to figure out what the password could be, when the door opened. "What are you doing down here?" she turned and saw one of the boys—Charlie—standing in the doorway. "Did mom ever mention a password you didn't know which door it went to?" she asked him.

"Um…no. why?" he asked. He sat cross legged beside her. "There's a keypad under this table, but no door. I don't know the password" she said. He stuck his head under the table and started messing with the keypad, pressing different buttons in different patterns. "Charlie, it's not gonna just-" she stopped when a small portion of the floor under the table moved left, opening a hole. Charlie quickly came out from under the table so he wouldn't fall through. "Whoa…what is that?" he asked, breathlessly.

"It's what I was looking for. Thanks" Lila said. She looked down the hole and felt around the sides. There was a small switch on one of the sides. She flipped it and lights underneath—what looked like several yards down—started turning on, revealing an empty, cement floor. She saw there was a ladder going down to the floor and she climbed down onto it. "What, are you crazy? You're just gonna go down the ladder into the creepy basement no one knows about where no one can hear your screams?!" Charlie exclaimed.

"You've seen way too many movies" Lila said, with a sigh. She climbed down below floor level and she stopped. She looked around at the room. It was massive, bigger than she'd thought, being hundred if not thousands of feet high and football fields wide. Her eyes stopped on the white Jaeger in the far left corner. She slid down the rest of the ladder and hopped off. She walked over to the front of the Jaeger and stared up at it. It was snow-Camo and it wasn't marked with any identification marks. "You're not supposed to be down here." Lila jumped back at the sudden voice.

She stepped back several feet as it crouched down, more to her level. It seemed to be looking at her. Her heart pounded in her chest and she looked at it with wide eyes. "It isn't safe here" it said, it's mouth moving as it spoke.

"W-wait you can actually talk?" she asked.

"Yes, I can. And it seems as though you can too."

"O-oh so you have sarcasm. You can do that?" she asked, fighting her stutter. He nodded. "So…w-what are you, like, some kind of Jaeger hybrid?" she asked.

"I am the only of my kind. I have no pilot or contact with humans. I can think and speak for myself. I have not been given a name by my creator," he looked over her shoulder. "I was unaware there were more of you." Lila quickly turned around and saw Charlie standing several feet away. He stared at the machine with wide eyes and an expression of pure shock. "Charlie-"

"What is that?!" he exclaimed. "It's an alien isn't it? I knew they'd come for us!" she sighed and fought an eye roll. "Charlie, he's a Jaeger. A machine. He's not an alien!" she said.

"Whatever, that thing is freaking me out!"

"I would change form to be more appealing, but my transforming abilities are not yet functional" the machine said. She turned around and looked at it. "You can change form?" she asked.

"When I'm completely finished, yes. In my state as I am, no." Charlie edged over to beside Lila, his eyes not leaving the giant machine. "So…do you have, like, a brain or something?" he asked.

"Not one of your understanding. My intelligence is that of machines, still."

"Who made you?" he asked.

"My creator is Marina Archer, to whom by my assumptions, is your mother." Charlie gasped. "What?! Mom doesn't do stuff like this she hates-"

"Charlie! Stop it, you're making yourself look like an idiot in front of the complex machine, that doesn't talk to humans" Lila said.

"So, you're saying I'm making mankind look stupid?"

"Precisely."

"Humans have a much greater level of family intolerance than I had expected," the machine said. "You are family, yet you don't cooperate."

"That's how families act. I don't know why, but we just do. And families don't keep secrets from each other. If my mother created you, then you are a part of that family," Lila said.

"And families don't keep secrets," it said, settling back with a low sigh. "What is it you wish to know?"

"I wish to know where my mother is" she said.

"I am uncertain of the whereabouts of your mother. She left with instructions for me to guard this bunker. She left with a finality that only suggested she wasn't coming back."

"But why would she leave you?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know."

"You can't be here alone…someone will find you, like Adam or Casey. Come back with me, to the Shatterdome. We can protect you there and I can finish fixing your systems" Lila said.

"I cannot leave, as I was instructed to."

"Don't be stubborn. People who are stubborn get nowhere. By the A.I. laws if your creator leaves you, you are succumbed to the wishes of their next of kin. That's me" she said. The machine let out a low sigh and shook it's head. "Alright…I will go with you."


	31. Chapter 31

Lila sat in the hand of the Machine—or Jaeger, whatever you want to call it—as he stood outside the Shatterdome. There were people with guns aimed at him, waiting for the order to attack him, on the ground. Pentecost finally stood behind the group of soldiers with guns and he looked up at the Jaeger. The Machine crouched down and spread his hand out on the ground. Lila jumped off and he stood. She quickly ran to Pentecost. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked her.

"I was going to call ahead but I had terrible reception. You are going to want to talk to him" she said.

"Talk to him? You mean he can talk?"

"Yes, sir. And much more, if you give him a chance" she said.

"You want me to bring him in?"

"He could help us understand what's going on with C.H.E.S.S. and while he talks with you I can be fixing his quirks." Pentecost sighed in frustration. What she was asking was impossible to understand. "If he tries to hurt anyone, I will dismantle him myself" he said. He gave the order to let him in and they took him to the hanger. The Machine looked around at the Jaegers secured in their spots. "You keep them here like animals in a cage" he said, distastefully.

"They don't have minds of their own…except Knight. And that's his choice" Lila said, walking beside him.

Chuck, Terra, and Yancy were standing by the newly repaired Gypsy Danger when they walked in. all three of them stared wide eyed at the Jaeger, moving and talking by itself. "What the…?" Terra said, under her breath.

"Not another one" Yancy mumbled. Lila and the Jaeger stopped in the middle of the hanger. Pentecost walked to them and stood in front of Lila. "What is this?" he asked her, gesturing toward the Machine.

"He's…I'm not sure there's a word for it yet" she said.

"Why did you bring it here?"

"Because like I said he can help us. He has insight on C.H.E.S.S. that we don't. The only person he's ever interacted with is my mother—and she works for them."

"And if he tries to hurt people?"

"He's friendly, sir. Tell him you're friendly" she said, glancing up at the Machine. He knelt beside them and rested his left arm on his knee. "I have no intentions to hurt any humans. Are you the head of this operation?"

"Marshall Stacker Pentecost. And your name would be?"

"I don't have one, sir. I was never granted one by my creator" the Machine said.

"See, he even says 'sir'" Lila said. Pentecost gave her a look and she went quiet. He turned back to the Machine. "You can stay here for now. I'm not promising anything permanent" he said, before walking out of the hanger. Terra slowly walked up to Lila. "Who is this?" she asked her.

"He doesn't have a name" Lila said.

"Well, he's got to have a name" Terra said. Lila looked up to the Machine. "What do you want to be your name?" she asked him.

"It's not my decision to make" he said.

"Now it is. Pick one" she said. He sighed in a low rumble as he 'thought' about it. "Orion, after the archer constellation. In honor of my creator" he said finally.

"Great, I'll see about a spot" Terra said. She jogged off and Lila watched her leave. She turned back to Orion. "You have many questions," he said before she could open her mouth. "I will answer them in time, dear one. For now, according to your condition, rest is needed."

"My condition?"

"I have only basic information, but I have scans that scan humans automatically. You are with child. Rest is needed based on my information" he said. Lila chuckled. "What is funny?"

"Nothing. You just remind me of someone. Can I trust you to not break anything if I leave you alone?"

"Of course." She nodded and started for the exit. She left the hanger and went to Pentecost's office. She knocked on the door and waited. "Come in." she walked in and shut the door. "What were you thinking, bringing it here? It could be hostile, playing with you until you brought it here, and then destroyed us all" he said, angrily.

"He's only seen humans a few times, how would he know to kill them? My mother never programs her machines for evil on purpose" Lila said, defensively.

"He can think on his own, Lila! He can double cross you."

"You want him to turn evil? I can go tell him to blow us all to hell if that's what you really want."

"Watch how you speak to me. You might have been exempt from basic form because of your heritage, but you do not raise your voice to me. That Machine will stay here as long as it takes you to fix him, and then he's gone. Dismissed."

"But, sir-"

"Dismissed!" Lila turned and left his office, shutting the door behind her. She sighed and walked to her room. She threw on a pair of clean pants and a shirt, and then went to the hanger.


	32. Chapter 32

Lila sat in Orion's shoulder with a blow torch, repairing a crack in his hull. After she finished repairing the crack, she turned off the blow torch. "Can I ask you something?" she asked Orion, as she took off her gloves.

"Yes" he said.

"What is the purpose of the command control?"

"There are six pieces and six Jaegers they go to. The six Jaegers are superior to the other mindless followers,"

"You mean they're like you?"

"I don't know. I don't have that information. They are hidden away from humans, their only interaction being with the creator—your mother. They do not even see each other. Each piece controls a certain Jaeger" he said. Lila stepped onto the lift beside Orion and put the blow torch down. She picked up her small black tool box and climbed back up on him. "Where are you transforming nerves? Like, uh…humans have a Brachia Plexus. Where is yours?" she asked. He used his other arm to point to the thick black chords running from his head and through his shoulder down into his torso.

She pulled out her x-ray scanner—a birthday present from her uncle—and scanned one of the three chords. "This shouldn't take long" she said. She made an incision on the chord and pulled off the small panel, exposing multi colored wires. Several of them weren't connected; they just hung there next to others that were. She started fixing the wiring when Orion said, "How do you know what you are doing?"

"Um, well, to be honest, I don't know the first thing about your system. But my step dad taught me a lot about machines. I know Knight's wiring—the other A.I.—and if it's anything like yours, then this shouldn't be too hard" she said, fusing a wire into it's socket. Orion jerked a little and Lila held her hands up. "What'd I do?" she asked.

"Nothing. My wiring has never been tampered with and it doesn't feel the best" he said. Lila sighed and shook her head. She started fusing another wire into it's socket. "Try not to jerk on me this time," she said. It melded into place and she started on the next. "Much better." She worked on the chord's wiring for two hours before it was completely re-wired. She welded the panel back on and started on the next chord, cutting out a panel and fusing wires into place. They were quiet for most of the second chord, until Orion said, "I do not understand humans. Will you explain?"

"Well, humans are very afraid of things they can't control. They're egotistical, hard to work with, distrusting, misleading. They can be cruel if you let them. Um…They can be good, too. They're not all bad, and I can see where you wouldn't understand them. I don't understand them half the time" she said, starting on the next wire.

"How do live with a species you can't understand?"

"One god awful day at a time" she said.

"This Knight you spoke of…does he understand humans?"

"Yes and no. he doesn't get it but he lives with it. Of course he's just a computer. You have intellectual levels he doesn't, making it easier for you to process and repeat" she said. She welded the panel back in and started cutting a panel in the final chord. She pulled out the panel and sighed when she saw the state of the wires. None of them were fused into their cup-links. She started fusing a wire into place. "You speak fondly of him. What is your attachment?" Orion asked.

"We drifted and he left a piece of him in my mind" she said.

"Mind melding with a machine is dangerous."

"I'm aware, Orion. But I can't take back what's been done. Could you tilt your head to your right?" she asked. He did as she asked, giving her better access to the wires. "I may be pregnant, but I can repair Jaegers with the best of 'em" she joked.

"Right you can" he agreed. She finished the wires and welded the panel back on. He slowly moved his head back into place and Lila stood. "Run a diagnostic and check for errors" she said, over her shoulder as she stepped onto the lift. She picked up a can of oil and walked back onto his shoulder. "Diagnostic is clear of any errors. My left side is operation for transformation" he said, as she opened the can.

"Hold out your arm" she said. He held up his left arm and she carefully walked out to his elbow. She knelt down and put oil on the joints. "You're starting to rust here and there" she said, walking back. She put the oil back on the lift as he dropped his arm to his side. She used her X-ray scanner to scan his shoulder. She stopped half way to the edge when she saw a hot spot on the screen. She folded it into her pocket and opened up the panel there.

She looked down into the wires and mechanics of his shoulder. There was a fold of metal in between two large metal ligaments. "I'm gonna pull on something here, so don't move your arm" she said. She reached down and grabbed the fold. She pulled on it and it didn't move. She cursed under her breath and pulled harder. After a minute of hard pulling she sat back. "Crap. I can't get this out," she looked down again. "Could move your arm out when I give the okay?"

"Yes" he said. She grabbed the fold. "Okay!" she called. She pulled as he lifted his arm out and the fold came out. He dropped his arm and she looked at the fold. There was writing on it she couldn't read. She tossed it onto the lift and closed the metal panel.


	33. Chapter 33

**Lila **had called a pilot's meeting in the mess hall. All the pilots were seated as she entered. She stood at the front of the table that the pilots were sitting at.  
"I called you all here today to clear up the craziness of the pilot positions. We've had some serious changes in the past week and everything is jumbled. So…Gypsy is still being repaired and so is Continental Drift, so Jack and Wes, and Yancy and Raleigh are on stand-by. Terra Kelly is stepping in as _reserve_ pilot for Dark Knight, but she and her sister are still assigned to Barracuda Elite—which will arrive on Monday. The River Rat and Death's Keeper pilots are still on active. Any questions?" she asked, resting her hands on her hips. Sarah raised her hand and Lila raised an eyebrow. "We only have two active Jaegers, is that enough?" she asked.

"Not by any stretch of the imagination, but we don't have a choice."

"Isn't there a three Jaeger minimum?" Mordechai asked.

"How are we supposed to fight level seven and level six Kaiju with two Jaegers?" Wes asked. They all started asking questions at the same time and Lila couldn't tell when one started and the other ended. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly, cutting off their words. They all looked at her and she took a breath before she spoke. "This isn't going to work, here, you guys asking questions at the same time. I know there is a minimum but like I said we don't really have a choice" Lila said, firmly.

"What about the new guy, the big white one you brought in?" Claus asked.

"We could use him; have you seen the guns on that thing?" Benjamin said. They all started agreeing with each other. "This isn't a democracy!" Lila exclaimed, over the noise. "We have two until Monday. If you have a problem with that, or you have suggestions, take it up with the Marshall."

"What about you? Aren't you still piloting?" Sarah asked.

"No, I'm on leave from the con-pod" Lila said.

"Why?" Sarah asked. Lila sighed as she saw everyone was now looking at her. "If you all haven't noticed this round bump down here then you're as blind as a bat. And if you have noticed and thought I was letting myself go, then you'd be wrong…I'm expecting a baby in February" Lila said. Everyone started talking to each other again and Lila sighed exhaustively.

Terra stood and went to Lila. "Don't worry about it…I got this" she told her with a wink. Terra turned to the crowd and shouted, "Next one to speak gets a stick up their ass!" they all stopped talking and several people shifted in their seats. "Shut the hell up, people. This is a pilot-meeting not some meet and greet. We're all a part of this, we're all grown-ups…act like it! We all have problems with the new switch around, but let's try to deal with it, k?"

"You're all dismissed" Lila said. Everyone left and Terra stayed. "That was the biggest train wreck..." she said, under breath.

"Why can't they work together? Why is that so hard?" Lila asked her. She shrugged and they both left the mess hall.

**Lila** changed into jeans and a tank top then walked to the hanger to work on Orion. When she walked in, she saw Orion walking around the hanger. He was looking at all of the Jaegers secured into their spots. She walked over to him and shouted, "What are you doing?" he stepped back and Lila jumped backwards, tripping on her feet, and hitting the floor. Orion turned and saw her on the floor. "I see you've acquainted yourself with the floor" he said. Lila pushed herself up onto her elbows and huffed. "Real funny. You're just a real comedian" she said.

He knelt down and offered her his hand. His hand was too big so he separated a finger for her to grab. She grabbed it and he pulled her up on her feet. "I suspect you're here for more repairs" he said, standing.

"Well, you're hardware won't fix itself" she said. He walked over to the empty spot they'd assigned to him and stood still. Lila went up on the lift to the left and stopped at the shoulder. She slid her X-ray scanner into her back pocket and strapped on her tool belt. "You came prepared" he said.

"Yep, I dug out my old tool set and belt. I'm ready to go" she said, climbing onto his shoulder. She stood and carefully made her way to his neck. She pulled out her scanner and looked over the chords for disconnected wires. Two chords were fully connected, but the third chord still had a few loose wires. She cut into the chord and pulled off the panel. She started fusing the wires into their cup-links from left to right. "What systems are off line?" she asked.

"All but basic movement and knowledge. The rest have never been finished" he said.

"Why would she build you to just half-ass it? It doesn't sound like her at all" she said, moving to another wire.

"She was only with me for four days after I was online. That's when she gave me the instructions to stay where I was."

"You speak highly of her. She's special to you, isn't she?" Lila paused for a minute to hear his answer. "Yes…but she's two sides of a coin" he said. Lila thought she heard it wrong, but she thought his voice sounded saddened. "You mean she's good and she's evil?" Lila asked, beginning again on the wires.

"She means well. But she is truly corrupted" he said.

"What did she do?"

"It's not what she _did_ it's what she's _doing_. She does want to protect you…but there is a snitch among you, giving her information and conspiring with her. I was only able to pick up some of the transmission, but there was enough to suggest it was male."

"How do know that?"

"It was intimate. From a male's point of view. I think this snitch might be more than just her partner in crime" he said. Lila stopped and sat down her fuser. "You think someone with us is in bed with my mother?" she asked.

"It's possible, yes. I have what you humans call a hunch" he said, tilting his head to see her.

"But you can't be sure who it was right?"

"Not completely, but I have enough intercepted data to confirm he's of the _Gypsy Danger_ Jaeger. I wasn't able to get enough data to confirm which pilot it was."


	34. Chapter 34

**They** spoke in hushed tones, trying to keep their conversation on the down-low. Lila kept arguing it wasn't true, and Orion kept pushing it was true. If there is one thing you learn being in Lila's position, it's arguing with an all-knowing Jaeger is like arguing with the wall…that can talk. You say 'the sky is blue' and it will say 'no it's not blue, it's purple' just to disagree with you. "How could any of the Beckets be in cahoots with my mom?!" Lila whisper-yelled.

"The same way humans can turn on each other. You say yes when you should have said no" Orion said, firmly. Lila sighed in frustration. She stood and crossed her arms. "You realize what you're accusing here? You're accusing one of our own of conspiring with my evil mother! Do you really think anyone will believe you?!"

"No, that's why I have the transmission—proof. You can believe me or not, either way I'm exposing the truth, as a good person should. Are you a person that does what is right, or are you a person that sits back and watches?" he asked. "Times like these show what and who you are."

"You can try to convince them all you want, but they're not gonna-"

"Not unless you advocate. I am asking you, as a friend and ally, will you help me expose the truth?" he asked. Lila slid her fuser into her belt and stepped onto the lift. "I'll do what I can, okay? I'm not top of the food chain by any stretch of the imagination" she said, as it lowered to the floor. As she stepped off, Orion knelt down and held out his hand. Inside his hand was a blue disk. Lila glanced up at him before taking it. "No promises, big guy" she said, leaving the hanger.

**She **walked to Pentecost's office and knocked on the door. "Come in." she opened the door and stepped inside, shutting it behind her. She stood in front of the desk and gave Pentecost the disk. He raised an eyebrow at it. "It's an intercepted transmission from us to a C.H.E.S.S. employee" she said, leaning forward on one of the chairs.

"Someone here is communicating with C.H.E.S.S.?" he asked. She nodded. "Where did you get this?"

"Orion was monitoring radio frequencies and he caught it half way through. It's coded but he decoded it. He thinks it's a male snitch speaking with my mother" she said.

"You trust this thing to tell the truth? What if he made it?"

"Sir, please, just listen to it. You're gonna fire me, though, because he says it's one of the Beckets, and the only Becket here is Yancy" she said.

"You're accusing Yancy Becket of conspiring with the enemy?" he asked.

"It's not clear whether it was him or not, but from what is there that's his voice…I know it's hard to believe," she walked to the door. "Just listen to it and you'll see I'm telling the truth." She left the office and shut the door. She turned on her heel and walked to the mess hall.

**Almost** all of the pilots were there—including Yancy—as she entered. It was all she could do not to hit him. She walked over to the table he and Terra were sitting at and she crossed her arms. "Yancy, a word?" she said. He sighed as he stood and followed her to the empty corner of the mess hall. She tried her hardest to stay as quiet as possible. "I knew there was a reason I didn't like you. I just didn't know what it is…until now,"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I know what happened in Belize," at this he straightened and stiffened. "I know what you did when you were 'dead'. And I know why my mother was never home. I gave the Marshall a copy of your conversation—decoded edition. Have fun jackass." She walked around him and left the mess hall. Terra trailed at her heels until they entered the barracks and she grabbed Lila's arm. "What the hell was that about?" she asked her.

"He's a traitor and just a general ass. Don't trust him" Lila said. She pulled free of Terra's arm and ran into her room. She shut and locked the door behind her, sliding down to the floor. She ran a hand through her hair and stifled an angry scream. She knew now why her mother was never around when she'd tried to come home for holidays.

It made her sick to the stomach thinking about it. She came to the conclusion that Yancy was a home-wrecking ass and that her mom was a whore. She'd had two affairs, the first being an 'accident' that birthed Lila, and now another with Lila's future brother-in-law. Lila thought of all the crapy excuses she'd believed that her mother told her. "I was too busy this year" being the most popular.

Angry tears seared her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She curled her fingers into fists to stop herself from hitting something. She was so angry all she wanted to do was scream. She wanted to ask her mother why she'd screwed up everything she could've had just to keep her affair going. A knock on the door stopped her thoughts.

She stood and wiped her tears from her cheeks. She pulled open the door and saw Herc with a concerned expression standing outside her door. "You okay, sweetheart?" he asked, gently. She cried harder and hugged him. Lila was saying things that couldn't be made into words. He could pick out words like 'Stupid' and 'mom' but the rest was just gibberish. She pulled away and walked into her room, leaving the door wide open, and started looking through a drawer in her desk.

Herc stepped in and put a hand on her shoulder. "What happened?" he asked. She straightened, holding a few journals and note books, and turned to him. "I realized the mother I knew was some stupid lie I'd been telling myself for years. She's not some saint that still cares about me. She's a lying, cheating, woman with no intention to settle down with a family that, you know, actually cares about her," she started looking in her drawer again as she spoke. "She's had a record so far of two affairs—but I'd bet anything she's had more. And I have no idea if Adam, Charlie or Casey are even Hank's anymore-"

"Where are you getting this from?" he asked.

"The source! Well…not mom, she'd never admit to anything, but I have proof that someone is talking with my mom, and it ain't about shoes" she said.

"Do you know who?" he asked

"Yes, and he's a total low-life, scum-sucking, good-for-nothing, son-of-a-"

"Who is it?" he urged. She sighed exhaustively as she straightened and faced him. "Yancy Becket" she said. He raised his eye brows. "Becket? Yancy is the one with your mother?" he asked, in disbelief. She nodded and sat on her bed with a stack of journals. She sat them beside her and started looking through the one on the top. "I tell you what, when I find her I'm rip her a new-"

"How are you sure?" he asked.

"I have a recording of a conversation. I gave it to Pentecost a while ago to listen to" she said. She sniffled and tossed the book aside. She started looking through the next one and stopped after a minute of flipping pages. She pulled out the only picture she had of her and her mother. She was thirteen, just barely over her mother's shoulder I height, with an orange/blonde color of hair. Yes, she was a ginger. They were smiling in the picture and Lila hated looking at it.

She didn't know why she'd kept it, but now she knew she needed to get rid of it. She ripped it in half and took the remains into the bathroom. She dropped them into the toilet and flushed it. She left the bathroom and put all of her journals away. "I never want to see either of them ever again. I just want it to go away" she said.

"Want what to go away?" he asked.

"The pain I've been feeling ever since I found out the man that I thought was my father wasn't. the pain that has driven me to do what is right because I feel like if I don't, then I'll be ruining everyone's life around me like mom did," she said, turning around. "I can't ever stray from the path because mom will be disappointed. I couldn't do anything I wanted to do because all I've ever wanted was to make my parents proud of me...and now I look back at that and think 'what crap'. Yes, I still want my parents to be proud but, as far as I'm concerned, my mom can go to hell—along with her one-night-stands and long-term affairees."

She stepped forward and hugged her dad. "The only thing good that came out of this was having you as my dad" she whispered, as she buried her face in his shoulder. He hugged her back and felt teary-eyed. "And the the only thing good that came of this for me was having you as my daughter."


	35. Chapter 35

**Lila** sat in a chair in front of Pentecost's desk and Pentecost sat behind the desk. They were quiet a minute before someone spoke. "I listened to the disk" he said.

"And?"

"I had Dr. Geiszler run it through voice recognition, and it came back as Yancy's voice. You were right" he said.

"_Orion_ was right," she corrected. "How are we going to handle this scum-bag?"

"This 'scum-bag' left the Shatterdome last night. We have no idea where he is, or where he might have been headed. But I have a hunch he's with your mother. Do you know where she is?"

"My mother? No. she's not at home, and I don't know where she goes outside of the lab" she said. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.  
"Sir…I don't know how you turn your feelings on and off so you don't make things personal, but I don't have that, whatever it is. I did not go through ten years of hell to sit by and watch this asshole rip apart my entire life. Yes, he's the PPDC's enemy, but he was on my most wanted list first. I respect your decisions, but he isn't just attacking your home he's attacking mine" she said.

"What do you think you could do that I couldn't?"

"Communicate with the machines to find out where they are. You think only humans snitch? The Jaegers will trust me more than they'll trust a gun pointed at them" she said.

"What if they turn on you? If you're injured, you could-"

"Loose the baby, I know. But Orion will be with me. His guns and cannons are online and functioning now."

"Are you certain that you are willing to take that risk?"

"Yes, sir." He sighed again. "Terra has asked to accompany you if you were to pursue your mother and Yancy. Her sister, Isabelle, has come early to help out. They will both come with you as back up support is case something would go wrong" he said. She nodded, reluctantly agreeing with the terms. She stood and started for the door. "Lila," she stopped and turned. "Be careful." She nodded and left his office.

**She** walked down the hall to the emergency armory and stepped inside. She strapped a knife to her right leg under her pant leg and strapped on a tight holster to her waist. She found a 9mm on the table near the ammo and picked it up.

She pulled out the clip and checked how many rounds it had left. She reloaded and shoved the clip back in. she secured it into her holster and strapped on a high-tech Kevlar vest to her torso. It thinned and formed to her body like another layer of skin and she startled. "That's new" she said.

"Yeah, it's this awesome tech your mom invented years ago," she recognized the familiar voice and turned around. "But awesome tech is over rated." Raleigh stood in the doorway, leaning on the frame, with a cocky grin. His right arm was still wound in bandages but the rest of him seemed okay now. He nodded toward the vest. "What's that for?" he asked.

"I'm leaving the Shatterdome for a while. A recon thing. No biggy" she said, turning around.

"I know about Yancy…you don't have to hide anything anymore, I know all of it" he said. She turned around and leaned back on the table behind her. She crossed her arms and bit her bottom lip. "It's not recon, okay? I'm…I'm going to look for my mom and Yancy with Orion, probably scrape up info from enemy Jaegers here and there" she said.

"Who's Orion?" he asked.

"A highly advanced Artificial Intelligence in the hanger. He's, like, big and white—you can't miss him. Oh, and he sounds like Optimus Prime, too" she said, gesturing with her hands. He walked to her and slid his left hand onto her cheek, kissing her passionately. He pulled away but stayed close. "You know what you're risking by doing this, right?" he asked.

"It won't come to that. I'll be protected at all times, and Terra and her sister are coming with me as back up," she said, looking into his yes. His facial expression showed he wasn't convinced. She took his hand and placed it on the bump of her stomach. "I wouldn't risk _this_ if I didn't know there was a backup plan." She kissed his forehead then slipped away. She left the armory and high-tailed it to the hanger.

**Orion** was standing by the platform doors and he turned when she walked in. Terra and Isabelle—a girl that looked like a younger version of Terra—were standing next to him with small packs on. It was obvious they had been talking and stopped when she walked in. she ignored it as she joined them. "What's the plan, boss?" Terra asked.

Lila pulled her gun from the holster and double checked it's probability of jamming. "Why are you packing heat?" Isabelle asked. Lila glanced at her before holstering the 9mm. "Reasons," Lila said. "Here's the plan: we go to my mother's storage's last known location and search it. And by storage I mean her secret bunker she keeps her Jaegers in."

"You know where that is?" Terra asked.

"Yes. She has one in Sydney—under the lab. She has another lab in New Britain _and_ Berlin. She spread them out so no one would pick up on her trail" Lila said.

"No one except for her daughter" Isabelle said.

"Yeah, but there are only three you know of. And there are six Jaegers we need to find" Terra pointed out.

"Let's just search the labs I know and then work our way to the others" Lila said. Terra and Isabelle nodded in unison. Lila looked up to Orion and he looked down at her. "Can you get to New Britain?" she asked. He knelt down and laid his hand on the floor. "Can humans get to the moon?" he asked.

She smiled and climbed onto his hand, followed by Terra and Isabelle. He lifted them up to the top of his head and Lila jumped off onto the head. She opened the hatch into his head and gestured for Terra and Isabelle to follow. Lila slid her legs down into the hole and slowly hung down inside. She hung there a moment before dropping to the floor.

The inside was horrendous. It was dusty and stuffy, cobwebs hung all over the place, and it smelled of mold. Lila held her breath as she walked to the front of the head. There was a long table that went from left to right. Lila used her sleeve to wipe the dust away, revealing a panel of buttons and controls. Her eyes stopped on _Air Filter_. She pressed the small button and a humming filled the room. The air didn't smell anymore and it wasn't stuffy or stale. She took a deep breath and looked for the lights.

She found the small switch near the _self-destruct_ button. She carefully avoided the _self-destruct_ and flipped the _Light_ switch.


	36. Chapter 36

**Bright**, fluorescent lights hummed to life as Isabelle and Terra dropped into Orion's head. Lila searched the controls and found a touch-screen computer on the left side of the self-destruct. It had an outline of a hand on it, with a green line that went from side to side of the screen going up and down across it. She put her right hand on the outline and it scanned her hand with a green flash. She pulled her hand away and words stated filing onto the screen. It was an information file on Lila.

Terra stood to the left of Lila and watched everything she did. "You know what you're doing?" she asked.

"Yes. No. sort of. Only half of these are are online so I don't have to worry too much about it" Lila said, typing something on the digital keyboard.

"Look, Lila, not that I don't have your back on this, but is this really a good idea? You have no idea what you're doing" Terra said, in a hushed tone.

"Isabelle, do you know war system three?" Lila called over her shoulder. Isabella perked up at her name. "Yes! Yes, I do. But it's only in testing stages" she said.

"Do you know how to run it?" Lila asked.

"Y-yes…?" Isabelle said, standing at the right of Lila. Lila stepped back and moved Isabelle to where she was standing by the shoulders. "Run it, then" Lila said. Lila walked to the back of the head to a kind of fuse box. She opened the metal door and eyed the switches. "Which switch controls weapons?" Lila called. Isabelle thought about it and she half turned. "Uh, third switch down. Can't miss it it's-"

"Blue. Got it, thanks" Lila said. She found the blue switch and flipped it. The room was filled with a loud hum. "Weapons online" Orion's voice filled the room in a short crackle. Lila closed the metal door and hurried back to the front. Isabelle glanced at Terra, who gave a go-ahead nod, and then pressed a series of different buttons and flipped two switches. Then she pressed something on the computer screen and, from the table up, pixelated a window. "Found it" Isabelle to herself, starting on the next sequence of buttons.

"Are we okay to go?" Lila asked Isabelle. She furrowed her brow but nodded. "Orion, the first stop is the lab in New Britain. Can you get there?" Lila asked.

"Yes, I can. It should only be a few hours" he replied, starting to walk out of the hanger onto the platform.

"We might want to hold onto something" Isabelle said, noticing where Orion was going. All three of the girls went to different hand holds and held on for dear life as Orion plunged off the platform into the water. They all hit the floor in unison, along with matching _OWs_, when Orion's feet touched the bottom.

Isabelle sat up rubbing her left shoulder. "That was rough" she mumbled, standing. Terra stood and went to Lila. "You okay?" she asked, offering a hand. Lila sighed and took Terra's hand. She helped her up to her feet. "I'm fine, but my butt's gonna bruise" Lila said. Terra chuckled and they joined Isabelle at the controls. "We're moving steadily at roughly twenty miles an hour" Isabelle said.

"Crap, he's fast" Terra said.

"He's built for war…he's gonna be fast" Lila said.

"War?" Isabelle asked. Lila nodded and she went back to looking over switches for things that were actually online.

**In the control room**, "I can't get a link between our communications systems and his, sir" Tendo said, and Pentecost sighed.

"Can we at least contact Miss Archer?" he asked.

"Um…it looks like it, yes. But the satellite transmission won't last for more than twenty minutes. So, we have to get this in one try, otherwise we have no contact with them…or we could use Knight's mental relay with Lila and contact them that way" Tendo replied. Pentecost thought a moment before responding. "Connect us with Knight" he ordered. Tendo nodded and did as he asked, connecting Knight's A.I. with their system. _"How may I be of service, Marshall?"_ Knight's voice came over the speakers in a smooth, even feed.

"Are you capable of connecting with Lila long enough to set up a communication line?" Pentecost asked.

"_Yes, I am"_ Knight replied.

"Then do it" he urged.

**Inside Orion**, Terra was working on repairing a few functions in a control space behind the back wall. Lila was holding a flashlight on the wires Terra was repairing, over Terra's shoulder. "Are you sure this'll work?" Lila asked.

"Lila, I told you, I have a history with hot-wiring cars. This is no different" Terra said. Lila chuckled and sighed. She glanced over at Isabella, who was seemingly pressing random buttons on the control pad, then focused on the light. A high-pitched tone rang in her ears and she dropped the flash light, putting her hands over her ears. Terra turned and gasped. "Lila! Lila, what's going on?" she asked her. The tone dimmed to a faint echo and a she heard a voice, "Hello, Lila. I apologize for the intrusion, but I was ordered to speak with you."

"Knight?" Lila asked, aloud. She dropped her hands and blinked. "Why were you ordered to speak to me?" Terra looked at her like she was crazy and so did Isabelle, still standing by the controls. Lila shrugged at their looks and listened. _"The Marshall is in need of a connection of your communications and those of the Shatterdome" _Knight said. Lila went to Isabelle. "Do you know how to get our wireless coms online?" she asked her.

"Y-yes, um…" she turned to face the controls, her eyes sweeping the buttons and switches. "It's, um…oh, right here." She flipped to identical white switches and a quiet crackling sound filled the room. "They're on," Isabelle said. "Not sure how good they work…"

"Knight, ours are on. Can you connect?" Lila asked.

"_Yes…goodbye Lila"_ he said.

"Goodbye, Knight." The faint buzz stopped ringing in her ears and she had a slight headache. Terra appeared beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Everything okay?" she asked, slowly.

"Yeah, fine. We should be connected to the Shatterdome soon. Let's finished the cannon functions" Lila said, walking to the back. Terra followed after sharing a sideways glance with her younger sister. Terra resumed tying wires in the control space and Lila held the light.

**A few minutes later**, the speakers screeched loudly. Terra and Lila stopped moving and listened. _"Is it working? I think it's working…"_ a quiet voice said.

"_Can you hear us?"_ Pentecost said, through the speakers.

"Yes! Yes, we can hear you, sir" Isabelle said, into the microphone to the left of the controls.

"_What is your E.T.A.?"_ he asked.

"We're four miles from the first lab in New Britain, sir" Isabelle said. Lila handed Terra the light and walked to the microphone next to Isabelle. "Why are you asking?" Lila asked, into it. Isabelle looked at her like she just killed someone. Lila shrugged at her and turned back to the mic. "Obviously you wouldn't use Knight to contact me unless it was serious."

"_What, family isn't serious?"_ Lila recognized the voice and rolled her eyes. "Chuck, if you hadn't noticed, we're on a mission we may or may not come back whole from…so whatever it is, can you spit it out please?" Lila asked.

"_Ouch, that was rude"_ he said, with attitude.

"Chuck, say it or-"

"_Okay, okay! God! What are you, my mother?"_ he was quiet a minute. _"Um…I just wanted to say goodbye, you know, in case. And I love you, sis."_

"I love you, too, Chuck. Can you tell dad that I love him, please? I didn't get a chance to see him before I left" she said.

"_Of course, yeah, I'll tell him. Oh, and Terra,"_ Terra walked over beside Lila upon hearing her name. _"Take care of my sister."_

"Will do," Terra said, into the mic. "Even if it costs my life."


	37. Chapter 37

**Orion** stayed on the beach, near the water, while Terra, Isabelle, and Lila walked inland. Lila led the way to the run down warehouses ahead. She followed her memory to large warehouse on the north side of the yard. The door was rusted and hanging on by one hinge, the building looked like it could fall over with one gust of wind, and the only thing that wasn't rusted was the key pad to the right of the door.

**Lila** walked up to the door and typed in the password—_**07.13.2008**_—and the key pad blinked green. She pushed open the door, revealing a wide open warehouse. It was empty except for a few boxes here and there—and those were empty as well. There was a room in the far left corner, and Lila walked to it. Terra and Isabelle stayed by the door a minute before Terra followed after Lila.

**Lila** opened the door and walked into the lab. It was identical to the lab at her house. Lila slowly started feeling under the tables, thinking, _if the layout is the same then the door must be_. Terra stepped in and raised an eyebrow at Lila. "Why are you feeling the tables?" she asked.

"The keypad is under one of them" Lila said, practically standing on her head to see under a table. Terra nodded and started on the other side.

**Isabelle** stayed outside the lab, walking around the empty warehouse. She hated small, enclosed spaces. Even small rooms that have doors freaked her out. But if you asked her, "Are you Claustrophobic?" she'd say 'no'. She looked out one of the large windows on the back wall. She saw something gray outside on some grass. She glanced back at the lab before walking out a hole in the wall. As she got closer to the gray object, she realized what it was.

She stood in front of it and covered her mouth with her hand. It was a grave stone. She knelt down and squinted to read it. It had moss and leaves plastered to it, so she pulled almost all of it off to see. She could read all of it clearly now as, _Marina S. Archer 1979-2023_. Isabelle stood abruptly and ran back inside the warehouse.

**Lila** felt for the light switch and her fingers caught on it. She flipped it on and lights underneath started turning on. Terra offered to climb down first and Lila let her take the lead. Terra slid down onto the ladder and began climbing down the hundreds of feet to the bottom. Lila followed once Terra's feet hit the floor. She climbed down and hopped off onto the floor next to Terra.

They both scanned the giant room for the Jaeger but couldn't see one. Lila looked over every inch of the west wall, and Terra looked over every inch of the east wall. Terra stood motionless after a minute and slowly touched Lila shoulder. Lila turned around and stopped still. There was a Jaeger with a white-grey paint color standing in the back of the room. "It wasn't there a second ago" Terra whispered.

"What? How is that possible?" Lila asked, looking it over.

"Beats me. Think it's friendly?" Terra asked.

"Only one way to find out, right?" Lila slowly started for the Jaeger. As she got only yards away from it, it straightened and it's visor glowed momentarily. It took a few steps backward until it touched the wall. Lila put her hands up so it could see she wouldn't hurt it as she stood only three yards away from it. "Easy there, big guy. I'm not gonna hurt you" she said, softly. She hated seeing it afraid of her. Machines weren't supposed to be afraid of humans, and it felt wrong to her.

**Terra **walked back to the ladder when someone whisper-yelled her name. She looked up and saw Isabelle leaning over the hole. "What?!" Terra whisper-yelled.

"You have to see this! It's her mother's grave, out in the yard!" Isabelle said, eyes like a wild animal's.

"Her mother isn't dead, moron!"

"I'm telling you, it's right out there!"

**Lila** stood with her hands up for a moment before putting them down at her sides. She didn't know how, but she could feel it's unrest. She knew it was afraid, and she knew afraid machines tend to hurt people. She was careful in the words she used. "My name is Lila Archer. I'm not here to hurt you, I promise. I'm the daughter of your creator, Marina Archer. Remember her?" she asked.

"Yes…I-I remember my creator, yes. But she never mentioned offspring" it said, hesitantly and quickly.

"No, she probably didn't. She's not the sharing type. Do you know where she is?"

"N-no. She only told me she was leaving, not where she'd be."

"What is your name?"

"I'm only but a piece of C.H.E.S.S. I have no significant name. But my creator called me White Knight" it said.

"Okay, White Knight, have ever been above ground?" Lila asked.

"No," it said, firmly. "What are you getting at, human?"

"In the game of chess, there are two sides. White and Black. Good and Evil. Which side are you on?" Lila asked. It looked away, obviously considering something. It looked back to Lila. "My creator is Black isn't she?" it asked.

"Yes, she is. She's trying to use you for her war on the White side. You are a White piece—a Knight for God's sake! Are you going to fight for what's right, or succumb to the evil of her game?" Lila asked. It stood up straight and looked down at Lila with what looked to her like pride. "I will not be a pawn in a game. I am a Knight! Not some low-playing scum" it said.

"Then help me take down the source of the scum."

"Help a _human_?" it asked, as if it had never heard something so vial.

**Isabelle** led Terra outside to the grave. Isabelle stood to the side of it with her hands on her hips. Terra knelt down and read the stone. "I told you, it's her mother! How does a living, breathing woman lie in a grave and walk the earth at the same time?" Isabelle asked. Terra stood and shook her head. "Marina Archer is not who she says she is" Terra said.

**Lila** crossed her arms and sighed. "You wouldn't be helping just me, you'd be helping all of the humans and the Jaegers" she said.

"There are none others" it said.

"Yes there are. There's a whole hanger full of 'em. One is waiting on the beach right now."

"_If_ I were to help you…what would you have me do?"

"I'd start by teaching and repairing you. There are a lot of things you miss living underground. You would ultimately fight side by side with other Jaegers, to defeat the Dark side's Jaegers."

"Give me one completely compelling reason to help you" it said.

"There are people dying every day because of the Kaiju. But the Kaiju aren't our threat anymore, it's the Jaeger. The Jaeger that once protected us! We need your help as much as you need ours. You think you're the only one locked in a basement? There are five other Jaegers just like you, and I already have one on my side. But one isn't enough" she said. They were both quiet as White Knight considered her words. He sighed, a low hum that stopped short. "I will help you, but I will not be treated as a piece of metal you can throw around" it said.

"Wouldn't dream of it" she said, smiling.

**Terra** and Isabelle met Lila outside the warehouse near the beach. Lila sighed as she glanced over her shoulder at the Jaeger. "He is the most argumentative Jaeger ever" Lila said.

"Yeah, cool, um…there's something you've got to see" Terra said. Lila raised an eyebrow and Terra led her behind the warehouse. Lila saw the grave from a few feet away. "What is that?" she asked. They stood in front of that and Lila's eyes widened. "No, no, no, no, no…what is this?" Lila asked.

"This is your mother's grave, you know, where she's buried" Terra said.

"I know what it is! But why is my mother's name on it if she's alive?" Lila exclaimed.

"That's what I want to know."


	38. Chapter 38

**Lila** sat on the floor of Orion's head, leaning back against the wall, slowly hitting her head against the wall in a steady rhythm. She'd been thinking of explanations for the grave stone with her mother's name on it for hours, but couldn't explain it. The only person that could explain it was her mother and she wasn't about to go asking her. She side exhaustively and sat up.

**Terra** sat next to her and crossed her legs at the ankles. She didn't say anything, she just sat. She knew Lila would want to be left alone, but in this tiny room with three people and nowhere to go, you kind of have to live with it. She sighed once then was quiet. A minute later, when Lila didn't say anything, she sighed loudly. Lila snapped. "What do you want?" she asked, bitterly.

"Are you okay? You seem…"

"Angry? What, me, angry? No!" Lila said, sarcastically. Terra laughed and dropped her head in her hands by her lap. She sat up, swinging her long blonde hair over her shoulder. She burst into laughter and Lila raised an eyebrow. "Cranky pregnant lady," she said, in between laughs. "I don't know why that's so funny." Lila rolled her eyes. "I'm only three months!" she said. Terra nodded, still in a fit of hysterical laughter. Lila stood and went to Isabelle at the controls.

**Lila** looked her over—she seemed nervous. Lila touched her shoulder and she startled, turning to look at her. Isabelle sighed in relief when she saw it was Lila and turned back to the controls. "Are you alright?" Lila asked her. Isabelle nodded. "Yep, just fine" she said.

"Are you sure?" Lila paused. "Wait a minute, are you…are you claustrophobic?" she asked. Isabelle sighed in irritation. "No I am not claustrophobic! I just don't feel entirely comfortable in small-er spaces" Isabelle snapped.

"Whoa," Lia said, holding her hands up in surrender. "Calm down, Isabelle." Isabelle nodded and huffed as she continued pressing buttons. Lila looked over at Terra, who was still laughing, and then looked back to Isabelle. "I think we all need air. How far are we away from Berlin?" Lila asked.

"Um…about thirty minutes. We're almost to land" Isabelle said. Lila nodded and took a deep breath.

**Thirty-five minutes later**, Lila, Terra, and Isabelle stood outside a small building just before Berlin. It was a one-story Victorian-style building with a dark wood door. Lila walked up to the door and looked down at a rock next to it. She knelt down and turned it over. Imprinted in the rock was a blue key, the top shaped of a triangle in a square. She pried it out of the mold and stood. After the door was unlocked, they all stepped inside. It was practically empty, except for a couch in the right hand corner.

**Lila** didn't know this one as well as she did the others, so she took a while to find the door to the lab. The key pad to the right looked new. She sighed and tried the password—08.13.2010—and it blinked green. She opened the door and her eyes swept the room. It was, again, the same as the last. Lila started feeling under the edge of the tables to the right and Terra went left.

**After** a minute, Terra's fingers caught on the key pad. "Bingo" she said. She knelt down and looked under the table at it. Lila hurried over and bent under to see it. She reached under and typed in the password for the last one. It beeped three times and the floor opened, revealing a hole and the beginning of a ladder. Lila flipped on the lights and started down the ladder.

**At the bottom**, her feet touched the ground and she looked around. She took a few steps away from the ladder then stopped when she heard a loud hiss. She recognized the sound and turned to the right. A short, bulky Jaeger with Black paint stood aiming one of his cannons aimed at her. She put her hands up so he could see them. "Easy. I'm not gonna hurt you" she said, glancing at Terra, giving her a stay-put-look.

She looked back at the Jaeger and he made a scoffing sound. "You stupid humans always say that," he said, his voice like gravel. It was then she noticed his right arm was missing up to the elbow joint. "And then you hurt me."

"I swear on my life I will do nothing to harm you" she said.

"And why would a stupid little human like you want to do anything but hurt me?" he asked.

"Because my mother created you. And she raised me to love machines of any kind, and I do…who hurt you?" she asked, softly. He glanced at his arm and made a sound of irritation. "I don't know scum's name" he said.

"What if I told you I could fix you? Maybe even better than you were before?" his cannon wavered. "Fix me? You know how to do that?" he asked.

"Yes, I do. I can repair you to your full extent."

"What do you want in return?" he asked.

"I need your help. I'm turning Jaeger's just like you to the White side of the chess board. I know you're black but you could be white, and you could help destroy the the Jaegers that want to hurt others—like humans have hurt you" she said, slowly putting her hands down.

"How do I know I can trust you?" Lila slowly walked up to him and cautiously examined his arm. "Looks like the central nerve is blown. It's going to take a day or two but that should be the easy part. The arm is going to have to be custom—mom always hated manufactured parts," she pulled her fuser out of her pocket and and fused a few wires together. "This should allow you to at least pulsate a mark three sonic. Anything more and I'd have to get in and get my hands dirty."

"Alright, so you know about me, but anyone from C.H.E.S.S. could know that stuff."

"Okay…does anyone from C.H.E.S.S. actually pilot the Jaegers they create? No? Well I do. I mind-melded with a machine and now I have a part of him in my brain that I can never remove. His Dark just like you, but he's good. His name is Dark Knight. He isn't as advanced as you, but he's one hell of a fighter. I should know, I'm his co-pilot" she said. The machine dropped his cannon and grumbled. "Fine, I'll help you. but you have to keep your side of the deal" he said.

"Duh, do you really think I'm gonna double cross a Jaeger that could crush me with one toe?" he chuckled. "No, I guess you wouldn't."


	39. Chapter 39

**Lila** and Terra were able to connect White Knight, Orion, and the dark Jaeger so they could talk between each other. Lila, Terra, and Isabelle were all standing in a half moon in front of the controls. "Doesn't anyone have a hint of where the next lab is?" Lila asked.

"_The creator never mentioned any of the other labs to me"_ Orion said.

"_Duh! You buffoon! She didn't say anything to anyone!"_ White Knight said.

"_Oh, shut up already. You whites annoy the crap out of me"_ the dark Jaeger said.

"_That was extremely racist and insensitive"_ Orion said.

"_We're machines, I don't think calling one of us 'white' is racist—especially when you have white paint!"_ the dark Jaeger replied. Lila rubbed the bridge of her nose and Terra sighed, crossing her arms. The three continued to argue over race until Isabelle shouted, "Enough already! Cut this shit out before we all go insane in here!" everyone fell silent. Terra and Lila looked at her, Lila with wide eyes and Terra with an expression of admiration.

Isabelle turned and walked further into the room. Lila blinked a few times then continued. "Obviously, you all don't get along. But like Isabelle said, this shit needs to stop-" she said.

"_Who are you, my mother?"_ White Knight asked, with attitude.

"_White, what the hell? Shut up when the girl is talking!"_ the dark Jaeger said.

"Thank you. Now, like I was saying, I'm not expecting much. But what I am expecting is answers. You all spoke with my mother countless times, what did she say to you? Did she talk about her life or the lab? Did she act stuck up or modest? These little details will help me a lot. So if you could just take turns, that would be great" Lila said.

"_Your mother was a very pleasant woman. She didn't act 'stuck up', she acted with dignity and she only spoke of one thing—Belize"_ Orion said.

"_She was a nice person, I guess, if you want to call it that. She spoke of New Zealand a lot"_ White Knight said, forcefully calming himself.

"_The creator only spoke of things I was allowed to hear. She told me stories of Fiji—whatever the hell that is"_ the dark Jaeger said.

"Belize, New Zealand, and Fiji?" Terra asked. "Your mother has labs in the following: Sydney, Australia. New Britain. Berlin, Germany. Belize. New Zealand. And Fiji. How crazy is that?"

"Very, considering she wasn't ever gone that often for these long trips" Lila said.

"_Maybe she built the last three after you left?"_ Orion suggested. Lila snapped her fingers. "That's it! I had no idea because I left too soon to hear the locations…because she hadn't built them yet" she said.

"_So where are we going now, dear one?"_ Orion asked Lila. Lila smiled at the second use of the nickname. "We're going to New Zealand, Orion. You hear that guys?" Lila asked.

"_Yep, go it"_ White Knight said, still sounding annoyed.

"Ahoy captain!" the dark Jaeger said.

Terra and Isabelle were talking near the control space and Lila was sitting with her back against the controls. She knew Isabelle was Claustrophobic, but she didn't think it'd be getting to her this bad when the girl pilots a Jaeger. Thinking of Jaeger's made Lila remember something. "Hey, dark Jaeger, what's your name?" she asked.

"_Black Rook. But call me Rook"_ he said.

"Rook…like the chess piece?"

"_Yes." _

"So we have a knight and a Rook. Orion, what piece are you?" Lila asked.

"_I am a Bishop"_ Orion said.

"Wait a minute…six Jaegers, six chess pieces…we have a Rook, a Knight, and a Bishop. Does that mean the next ones are the Pawn, King, and Queen?" Lila asked.

"_It would seem so"_ Orion said.

"_You guys know there are hundreds of each, right?"_ White Knight said.

"'_The Knight is his commander of people, the Bishop his, and so on'"_ Rook said.

"Where'd you hear that?" Lila asked.

"_Your mother played chess sometimes, and she would recite the poem 'Written in Stars'. That was the ending"_ Rook said.

"WWKD" Lila said.

"_What?"_ they all said in unison.

"What Would Kit Do. He's a car, but he has an A.I. inside, and…anyway he's a car" Lila said.

"_You miss your Jaeger"_ Orion observed.

"_What kind is he?"_ White Knight asked.

"He's a Knight, like you. But he's dark—Dark Knight" she said.

"_And he lets you pilot him?"_ White Knight asked.

"Yep" she said, nodding. White Knight mumbled something about stupid Jaegers Lila couldn't place into a whole sentence, or words even. She just picked up bits and pieces. _"Lila, you should rest. It will be a long time before we reach New Zealand" _Orion suggested.

"Yeah, good idea" Lila said, suddenly yawning. She walked over to the side wall and laid down on her back. Her hands rested on the bump of her stomach as she drifted off.

"**Lila…Lila, wake up…Lila, **_**wake. Up**_**."**

**Lila** sat up quickly and saw Terra sitting next to her. She sighed and Terra helped her up to her feet. Terra glanced down at Lila's waist and saw she'd slept with her gun belt on. She raised an eye at Lila and Lila tensed. "I have history with sleeping , let's just leave it at that" Lila said, quietly. She brushed past Terra and went to Isabelle at the controls. Her hair was messy and she had small bags under her eyes. "Did you even sleep?" Lila asked.

"No, not really. But I'm okay" Isabelle said.

"Are you sure? You look like hell."

"I'm fine, I swear." Lila backed off and turned, facing the front. "You know…it doesn't make you any less of a person—being Claustrophobic" she said, with a sideways glance. Isabelle sighed lightly. "Yeah it just isn't fun telling people that" Isabelle said.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Lila asked.

"Sure."

"When I was twelve…my step-dad had a way of doing things that were very bad, and my mom knew about it. He was a monster—I mean, who sleeps with their twelve year old daughter?"

"Oh my god, Lila…he-"

"Yeah," she turned to Isabelle, who looked at her with a horrified expression. "That doesn't make me any less of a person because I lost my innocence before I truly had it. I've never told anyone that, Isabelle. And you don't tell people you're Claustrophobic. We're no different." Isabelle slowly stepped forward and Pulled Lila into a hug by her shoulder. "Thank you" Isabelle said.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"


	40. Chapter 40

**The** mountainess coast-range of New Zealand was breathtaking. Lila couldn't move as she looked over the side of a cliff beside the sand. Terra pried Lila's feet from the ground and pushed her along as they trekked into the forestry. They climbed through the brush and trees and hills until they found a clearing. In the clearing was a small building with a straw-looking roof.

**Lila** typed in the password—_**08.25.2022**_—and it flashed green. She pushed open the door and walked inside, Terra and Isabelle following. Lila couldn't help thinking of the memories that come with the password.

_08.25.2022_ was the date Lila ran away to her uncle. She left just before bedtime, knowing full-well what would happen if she didn't leave that night. She'd told her uncle he was hitting her—she was afraid to tell him the truth. He'd taken her in and didn't tell anyone she was with him when they looked for her. After a year, Lila finally left Australia on a plane to New York.

**She** focused on her task at hand and looked for the lab. It was a small building, so the lab shouldn't be far…until you round the corner into other rooms. There are a total of six rooms—not including the lab. All of the labs were the same layout, so it didn't take long to find the door to the basement. Lila slid down onto the ladder after switching on the lights and started climbing down.

**She** reached the bottom and stepped off the ladder. She turned around and saw another white/gray Jaeger cowering in the corner. She held up her hands—it was becoming usual procedure—and she slowly walked over to it. "Stay right there!" it said, it's hand forming into a cannon. Lila stopped dead in her tracks. "Have you heard the poem, 'Written in Stars'?" she asked it.

"No" it said.

"Neither have i—just the end bit. '_The Knight is his commander of people, the Bishop his, and so on'. _Which one are you?" she asked. It's cannon formed back into a hand and it stood straighter. "You have knowledge of C.H.E.S.S." he said.

"Yes, I do. My mother, she's your creator. Brown hair, 5'6", her name is Marina Archer. My name is Lila. Do you have a name?"

"Crystal Pawn," he said, with a gesture that looked like a curtsy. "At your service."

"Why did you just do that?"

"Because the Queen is your mother."

"Queen?"

"The Dark Queen, yes. She's one of us" he said. Lila's eye went wide. She went to the ladder and shouted up, "Terra, he said my mother is one of them!" Terra bent over the hole. "What the hell?" she asked. Lila remembered Orion's words. _"I would change form to be more appealing…"_ Lila gasped and ran back to Crystal Pawn. "Will you come with me?" she asked.

"Most certainty" he said.

**They** all met outside in the clearing. Lila had wild eyes as she spoke. "This is damn freaky. It is not natural!" Terra stopped her with hands on either shoulder. "Lila, what's freaky?"

"My mother is a machine! She's one of them!" Lila shouted.

"Whoa, whoa, girl. Your mother is a lot of things but she's not a machine" Terra said.

"Orion said he could change form, what if she can too? That's why my mother is dead! The machine killed her and changed form to look like her!"

"Which machine?" Isabelle asked.

"Dark Queen."

**Once** Terra, Lila, and Isabelle were in Orion, Lila made contact with the Shatterdome control room. She told them everything that had happened and explained her theory before letting anyone speak. It was quiet on their end for a long time. _"Are you insane?"_ Herc asked.

"_This isn't just insane, it's impossible"_ Pentecost said.

"Sir, please, I'm telling you what really happened. How else could my mom be alive and dead at the same time? And why would Crystal Pawn say she was the Dark Queen if she wasn't?" Lila asked.

"_We'll discuss your mental evaluation when you get back"_ Pentecost said.

"Damn it!" Lila said, slamming her fist on the edge of the controls. "Listen to me! They could be anyone—_anyone_. If they can change to human form, they could be anyone we know and we'd have no idea they were any different."

"_What are you saying?"_ Herc asked.

"I'm saying…I'm saying what if Chuck and Pentecost really are dead, and the machines took their place?" Lila asked.

"_Lila, you are way out of line"_ Pentecost said.

"This is serious! If not you, what about Chuck? Sir, I want it to be true that Chuck is really him more than anyone…but it's a possibility you have to look into. Sir, please, I'm asking you as a friend to look into it. And if not you, dad please, help me out on this one." they were quiet for several minutes. _"I'll look into it, Sweetheart"_ Herc said. Lila sighed in relief. "Thank you."


	41. Chapter 41

**They** decided to stay in New Zealand until daybreak, and then start for Fiji. Terra had started a small fire in the clearing and they all sat around it. Isabelle kept looking at Lila like she was crazy. Lila sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm not crazy" she said, seeming to have read her mind.

"I didn't say you were" Isabelle said, gently.

"You didn't have to, it's written all over your face" Lila said. She stood and walked across the clearing to the cliff overlooking the sand, where Orion sat himself. She sat next to him, her feet dangling off the side. "Am I crazy?" she asked him.

"No, dear one, you are anything but crazy" he said.

"Then why does the concept of machines pretending to be people seem so insane?"

"Humans are afraid of what they cannot control. I distinctly remember a human friend of mine telling me that" he said.

"Right, but androids? Or are they even that? See, I sound like I've been getting high" she said, crossing her arms.

"It's hard to comprehend, yes. But C.H.E.S.S. has been underground developing these things for more than ten years. Humans wouldn't have knowledge of these machines unless they worked for C.H.E.S.S. they are complex machines with a specific programing" he said.

"How do know all this?" he opened his hand, revealing a leather journal. "I've been reading" he said. Lila took it and opened it. Every page was filled with specific information on the Jaegers her mother built. Lila closed it and saw a name in the center of the cover. She ran her thumb over it after reading it—_M.S.A_. she remembered when her mother came to the hospital and said she 'needed to talk'.

Lila heard her words loud in her head. _"I'm trying to protect you..."_ she wondered how the machine knew to say that. She felt sad, thinking of her mother really being a machine. She knew now her mother was truly lost, but no in the sense she always assumed. She was dead—has been for years—but Lila never knew that. And neither did her younger half-brothers or her step-dad.

She sighed, her breath shaky. She felt like there was an anchor on her heart, pulling it down. She felt a pang of regret when she remembered the year of death on the grave—_2023_—the year Lila had stopped trying to contact her. Even though her mother was the source of Lila's pain, she still loved her. It sounds messed up—loving someone who would let you get hurt so badly. "You regret leaving your mother" Orion said.

"How'd you know?" Lila asked.

"'_A girl's silence is her loudest cry'_-unknown author. You where your heart on your sleeve" he said.

"I do? Great…" she mumbled.

"It's okay to mourn; it's natural for humans to do so. Even though the person you mourn for did such cruel things" he said.

"So you heard" she said. It wasn't a question. She knew he'd heard the conversation where she confessed about her childhood. She just didn't think he'd say anything about it. Lila swiveled to see behind her. White Knight and Crystal Pawn were talking a few yards to the left of Isabelle and Terra at the fire, and Rook was sitting to the right seemingly offline. She turned back around and stared out at the water. "He touched me, and she let him—how could a mother do that to her daughter? How? Your instinct is to protect your child from harm, so why didn't she?" she asked, fighting to keep her voice down.

"Maybe she was harmed as well, not as you were, but he could have been abusive to both of you" he suggested.

"Then why didn't she dump his ass? Why let him hurt us like that?" she asked, balling her fists.

"I have only basic knowledge, but the information I have suggests that she believed she deserved it, so she let it continue."

"How could anyone deserve that?"

"You were conceived due to an affair…maybe she consider herself worthy of 'punishment' because of her wrong-doings?"

"Maybe" Lila huffed.

"Humans are too complicated for my systems" he said.

"That makes two of us," she agreed, as she stood. "Thanks for the talk."

"Anytime" he said, with a short nod. He resumed looking at the ocean and Lila walked back to the girls at the fire. She sat down across from Isabelle and Terra and Terra raise an eyebrow. "Everything okay? Not quitting on me, are you?" she asked.

"No, I'm not quitting. I'm fine" Lila said, lying down on her back in the grass. She didn't fall asleep until after the fire burnt out, late into the night.

**She** was the first to wake up in the morning. There was barely enough light to call it morning without a watch. She propped herself up onto her elbow and looked around at the others. Rook, White Knight, Crystal Pawn, and Orion were all still offline. Terra and Isabelle were asleep side-by-side on the opposite side of the fire. Lila sat up and stretched after yawning.

She stood and pulled out her 9mm. she fired a round into the air and everyone jolted awake. "Time to go!" Lila shouted, sliding her gun back into her belt. Terra stood and stretched, Isabelle slowly following suit.

**They** climbed into Orion and started their journey to Fiji. To pass the time, the girls played trivia games. Either about Jaegers or their pilots. Lila knew the answer to every question, while Isabelle and Terra struggled to get it right. After trivia, they started a kind of Truth or Dare. There wasn't much to dare so they went with truth every time. "Who—or what I suppose—was your first time?" Terra asked, Lila.

"Or _what_?" Isabelle asked, sounding offended. Terra shrugged. "What you do is your business, unless of course you play truth or dare" she said. Isabelle rolled her eyes and Terra turned to Lila with an eyebrow raised. Lila sighed. "Raleigh" she lied. After her escape from her house, Lila didn't dare attempt sex and relationships in general. Her first _consensual_ time was Raleigh, so that part was true. Terra's face went blank. "You've got to be kidding. Please tell me you are kidding" Terra said.

"You asked" Lila said, shrugging.

"Let's change topics. Whose turn is it?" Isabelle asked.

"It's my turn to ask you" Lila said to her. They played for a while then started sharing stories about anything and everything they could think of. Isabelle got bored and went to the controls, leaving Lila and Terra sitting on the floor alone. Lila didn't want to continue talking about her sex life so she stood and walked back to the control space.

**She** was elbow deep in wires when they arrived in Fiji. "We're here!" Terra shouted. Lila sighed and pulled her arms out of the maintenance hatch, then walked to the front.


	42. Chapter 42

**The** lab was identical to the other three labs they'd been to. The only thing different was the key pad wasn't on the left side—it was on the right. Terra won the argument of who goes first, and she slid down onto the ladder. She climbed down and whistled for Lila to come down.

**Once** Lila hit the floor, she started looking for the Jaeger. Her eyes stopped on the black Jaeger in the corner. Terra and Lila exchanged knowing glances and prepared themselves for what could happen. It was black Jaeger—it would probably try to kill them. Or defend itself against them. "Yo, robot!" Terra called. Lila hit Terra's arm and she just shrugged. Lila looked back to the Jaeger. It's visor flashed momentarily a green color. "You…are _not_ supposed to be here" it warned, firmly.

"Actually, I have every right to be here, seeing as this is my mother's lab's basement" Lila said.

"Is that so?" it asked, walking toward them. It displayed a confidence Lila hadn't seen in any of the Jaeger's they'd befriended. It stopped in front of them and kneeled down, looking at them closely. Lila pulled out her gun and held it at her side, just in case. "You humans do not belong in the affairs of the machines, yet you put yourself in between us and expect us not to harm you. Well, I don't share that same line of thought" he said. Lila noticed the crown imprint on his chest and swallowed. "Because you're the king" she said.

"Who did you think I was?" it spat.

"Calm down" Terra said.

"_You_ do not order _me_ to do anything!" it said, it's voice full of anger.

"She wasn't ordering you, it was more like a suggestion" Lila said, calmly.

"You humans always think I will lower myself so far as to do you're dead's" he mumbled.

"Look, here, buddy. We don't want to boss you around or make you do something you don't want to do. We're here to ask for your help" Terra said.

"With what?"

"The war on humanity. I thought all C.H.E.S.S. was, was a manufacturer of Jaegers, not androids that take people's place. Who knows how many they've replaced already—no one. No one knows! And the sad part is for you, they will make you do what they want you to do, no matter if you want to or not. the chess board is white and black, but no one ever asked the pieces which side they wanted to be on…I'm asking you now, which side you will play for. It's your choice" Lila said, calmly.

The Jaeger stood and huffed in a low breath of air. "You are the only human I've been in contact with that doesn't want to make me their slave. But that does not mean I will help you" he said.

"It's your choice…make it—that was just a suggestion too" Lila said, sarcasm leaking through at the end.

"I suppose you have more?"

"Yes. A Bishop, a Knight, a Pawn, and a Rook. All that's left of the head Jaegers is you and the Queen" Lila said.

"Which Rook?" he asked, sounding curious yet like he knew the answer.

"Black Rook, from Berlin" she replied. He hummed a minute. "I knew it…we've been side-by-side before—though they probably scraped his memory already…if I go with you, I will control me, and you will control you—no crossing wires" he said.

"Deal," she said. "Are you going to help us?"

"Fine. But I'm not doing it for you" he said. Lila sighed and slid her gun back into her belt.

**Outside**, the four Jaegers waited on the beach. Rook and Orion talked strategy while Crystal Pawn and White Knight guessed what was happening. "I don't know, man, they've been gone a while. You think they got squashed?" White Knight asked, as Crystal Pawn kicked the sand.

"Don't say that, Knight. They probably just hit a rough patch. They'll be back…" Pawn said.

"Well, _I_ think they got squashed. They'd be like crap on the bottom of the guys shoe after a walk in the-"

"White Knight, will you stop, for the love of god?!" Pawn cried.

"Fine!" White Knight exclaimed. He started to walk away mumbling, "Stupid little baby."

Orion and Rook were in a deep discussion about strategies on the war, when White Knight walked up to them. "Yo, guys, I think they might be dead" he said. Orion sighed, annoyed, and Rook shook his head. "You moron, they're not dead!" Rook said, fighting the urge to hit the back of his head.

"They'll be here soon, I'm sure of it," Orion said. "Make use of yourself while you wait." White Knight slumped his shoulders as best he could as he walked away, letting them know he wasn't happy waiting. Rook turned back to Orion. "That Jaeger is the most childish one I've seen" Orion said.

**Lila**, Terra, and Black King walked to the beach where the Jaegers were waiting. Pawn shrieked with joy when he saw they weren't dead. He smacked White Knight's metal arm. "You idiot!" he said.

"What?! Anyone could've thought that!" White Knight protested. All of the Jaegers stood still as they saw the Black King beside Lila and Terra. The Black King was the commanding officer in the army of Black and Dark Jaegers. The White Queen was in charge of the White Jaegers. White Knight just scoffed. "Here we go" he muttered.

**They** were heading to Belize, and all of them were linked to the main coms in Orion. Everyone stayed pretty quiet. Except for White Knight—he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "This is so boring. All there is is blue, blue, blue, and—hey!—more blue. Shocker there…" he said. Terra banged her head on the wall in irritation. Lila chuckled as she continued into the maintenance hatch, finishing half-assed systems.

Isabelle glanced at Terra and sighed. Terra walked to the front and looked out the window. "I'm gonna kill the next person to speak" she mumbled, quietly.

"Oh my god! Why does there have to be so much blue? I'd choose, like, I don't know, tope or something—something not so irritating as blue" White Knight said.

"Shut _the hell_ up!" Terra shouted.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger."

"You haven't given a message, dumbass" Terra said.

"Yes! I said the water was blue" he said. Terra slapped her hand on her forehead and Lila laughed in the back. "I think the machines are getting to you, Terra!" Lila called. Terra sighed and mumbled implacable words as she slid down the wall to the floor.

**They** listened to White Knight sing _Home on the Range_ all the way to Belize. They finally surfaced on land and Terra hurriedly escaped the room to the outside. She marched up to White Knight and shouted, "You are a worthless piece of crap! You can't shut your damn mouth to safe your freaking life!" she screamed in frustration and marched off. Rook patted White Knight's shoulder. "Nice job, Knight, nice job" Rook said, walking over to Orion. Rook helped Lila and Isabelle out and down to the ground.

**Isabelle** went to Terra, who was fuming a several yards away, and Lila stayed by Orion. She sighed and started in the direction of her mother's lab. She'd never been here, but she knew somehow where it was. She just had memories of directions she couldn't place. She followed them to a large, two story, Mediterranean-style house. It had a large green and a pool visible behind it. She walked up the short walk to the door. There wasn't a keypad near the door.

**Was** she supposed to knock? Ring the doorbell? She had no idea, so she just rapped on the door a few times. She stood outside for a few minutes and nothing happened. She sighed and snuck around the back of the house. She slowly edged to a hedge fence surrounding the backyard. She crouched by the fence and surveyed the area before proceeding to the backdoor. It was a sliding glass door, partially open.

**She** slid it open slowly, as to not make noise, and stepped inside. She slowly reached for her gun and pulled it free, holding it at her side. The house was _huge_ on the inside. Four bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a kitchen the size of half the downstairs, a a living room with a massive view of the backyard.

**The **lab was in the double-sided closet on the first floor, near the front door. Lila hastily looked for the keypad under the tables, but didn't find it. She stood and looked around the lab. Her eyes stopped on the far wall. A black key pad was in the center of the wall behind a table.

**Lila** moved the table out of the way and typed in the code for the other labs. It was the same password everywhere—_**07.25.2023**_—and it flashed green. The wall split into two sides, revealing a large room behind it. She cautiously walked inside and marveled at everything inside.

**The** room had shiny, metal walls and metal fixtures. There was a large computer and 3D model stand near the far wall, to the left was a spot for a Jaeger, and to the right was a whole bunch of tools and metal scrapes. It all seemed so familiar but she had no idea why.

**All** of the sudden a female voice said, "Welcome to my humble abode." It echoed through the metal room and Lila swung to face the owner of the voice, gun up in the two-hand position, ready to shoot. Her mother smirked devilishly, her eyes not matching the uncomfortable gesture. "Do you like it? I remodeled a bit" she said.

"What do you want, huh? What do you get by posing as my dead mother?" Lila asked, anger boiling inside her as she spoke. She heard a click and glances sideways at the door, catching a glimpse of Terra in the same two-hand position with a gun aimed at Marina. "You shouldn't be here" Lila said, to Terra.

"I'm not letting you do this alone, Lila. Remember, I have your back" Terra said.

"Aw, isn't that sweet? You have friend, which are so hard to come by these days if you don't have things like money or power…but that won't matter when C.H.E.S.S. has completed the mission" her mother said.

"What do they want? What are you really hiding?" Lila asked. Her mother chuckled lightly and sharply. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she said, teasingly. Yancy walked over beside Marina. Lila frowned. "You again. How nice" Lila said, mimicking her mother's tone.

"You think I want to see you again? Don't be so full of yourself" he said.

"Why are you helping her?" Terra asked.

"Beckets are winners, and I've chosen the winning side. All that's left is to get you two out of the way and then we've practically won" he said.

"Not if I shoot you first" Lila said.

"Wanna bet?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do. Because I'd bet you're a machine, too, right?"

"How'd you guess?" he asked, flashing a grin.

"Machines can be good…but unfortunately for you, I'm not partial to evil ones" Lila said. The next few seconds were a blur. All Lila heard were three gun shots and a cry of pain.


	43. Chapter 43

"**No, no, no, no, no—Terra? Terra, look at me! Terra! Open. Your. Eyes!" **

Lila's hands were now coated in sticky, red blood as she pressed down hard on Terra's side. Terra's eyes kept closing and opening, showing she was fighting it, but slowly losing. Isabelle cradled her sister's head in her lap as she cried steady streams of water. "Terra, listen to me!" Lila said. She took one of Terra's hands and interlocked it with hers. Terra's grip was firm. "Don't you dare let go, you hear me? Don't let go." Isabelle was shaking she was crying so hard.

Lila looked up to her with serious eyes. "Isabelle, look at me. Look at me—I need you run, okay? Run as fast as you can and find a phone," Isabelle started shaking her head and Lila raised her voice. "Isabelle, find a phone and call for help." When she didn't move Lila shouted, "Go!" Isabelle quickly laid Terra's head down and ran from the room. Terra coughed a few times and looked up at Lila. "I'm bleeding out, Lila. They can't get here in time" she said.

"Don't say that. They're gonna get here in time, okay?"

"You have to warn them…go before it's too late" Terra said.

"No! I am _not_ leaving you. You said you had my back, remember? I have yours, too." Lila kept her tears at bay for as long as she could—she didn't want Terra seeing her cry in case something happened to her. Lila looked up the door, looking for Isabelle. Isabelle didn't come. Blood gushed from between Lila's fingers and she pressed harder, trying to stop it. Isabelle finally came back and knelt down next to Terra. "I called 9-1-1" she said.

"Good. Terra, just hang on until they get here, Okay? They're gonna get here in time" Lila said to Terra. Terra just shook her head with a hollow look in her eyes. Lila's heart felt like a lead weight in her chest. Terra looked up to her sister. "Don't let this stop you, you hear me? Don't give up. I love you, sis" she croaked.

"Don't say goodbye, Terra. Please…" Isabelle said, through a monsoon of tears. Terra looked to Lila, her breath hitching and stalling. "I only knew you for a short time…but in the time I did…you became my best friend. I need…to ask you something…watch out for Isabelle?" she said, her breath stopping several times in the sentence. Tears started to sear Lila's eyes, though she fought hard to keep them in. she nodded and kissed Terra's forehead. When Lila pulled away, Terra's grip loosened and her eyes were closed. Isabelle sobbed and held her sister close to her.

Lila removed her hands from the wound and found they were shaking. She'd seen people die, she'd seen people after they died, but she never felt the life of the person leave their body as they died. Not just anyone's life—it was Terra's. Lila stood, holding back her sobs, and left the lab. She walked to the kitchen sink and started scrubbing the blood off her hands under hot water. She scrubbed until her hands were deep pink and she shut the water off. She dropped her head onto her arms on the counter and cried.

She sobbed into the fabric of her shirt to help quiet the sound. Crying was supposed to release the pain, but for Lila, it just hurt. The tears rolling down her cheeks felt like lava on her skin, burning it's way down and off her chin, and into her shirt. All she could see when she closed her eyes was Terra—her blood on Lila's hands, the feeling of knowing she was gone, the way she somehow knew just when to say goodbye, and many other things.

**Everything** happened so fast, it was hard to tell what happened when. She ran it back in her head over and over and couldn't find a scenario where Terra came out alive. Lila blamed herself—if she hadn't shot first, no one would be dead.

**Lila **straightened and looked out the kitchen window. She knew leaving Isabelle alone was a bad idea, but she needed to be alone. She needed to cry alone, so no one would see her when she was down. She'd done it all her life and now it just came like instinct—something natural. She opened the sliding glass door and walked outside. She walked to the edge of the backyard and looked down off the cliff face.

**At the Shatterdome**, Lila and Isabelle walked inside the Shatterdome. Isabelle split off and walked down the hall alone, ignoring Raleigh as he passed her. She disappeared down another hallway and Lila sighed. Seeing Raleigh didn't help the empty feeling inside Lila, no matter how hard she tried. He walked to her with an eyebrow raised. He looked over her shoulders and asked, "Where's Terra?" Lila didn't have a chance to call and say what had happened, so everyone was expecting three girls, not two. Hearing Terra's name made her feel ten times worse.

Raleigh noticed her subtle, inward wince. "What happened?" he asked, seriously.

"Terra, she…she's gone, Raleigh" Lila said, in a quiet, depressed voice.

"Oh my god, how?" he asked, hugging her with his good arm.

"It all happened so fast, I couldn't do anything t-to save her, and it was all my fault-"

"Lila, hey, calm down. It's okay. Don't blame yourself" he said, softly.

"Isabelle does" Lila said.

"Maybe if you talked to her, confided in her about it, maybe she'd come around" he suggested.

**Lila's** first item of business was to talk to Pentecost. She walked into the control room and was met by a big hug from her dad. After that, a hug from Chuck. She only got a nod and a, "I'm glad you're not dead" from Tendo. Pentecost walked up her her and crossed his arms. "What happened out there?" he asked.

"Um, sir, Terra…she didn't…she's not…we lost her, sir" Lila said.

"How?"

"She was shot. And it was my fault."

"How is it any of your fault?"

"If I hadn't of suggested this mission, she'd be here. If I hadn't of shot first, she'd still be here. Either way you look at it, it's my fault…sir."

"Get some rest…we'll talk about this later" he said. She nodded and Chuck walked her to her room. She didn't say a word the whole walk, and Chuck didn't push her to talk about it. They stopped at her door and she unlocked it as he said, "I'm glad you're okay."

"I would be happier without a man down" Lila mumbled, pushing open the door. She shut the door and turned around, and she just noticed Raleigh was standing in her room, waiting for her to arrive. She didn't say a word—just walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him tightly before he could leave her too.


	44. Chapter 44

"I don't see why you have to keep your hands over my eyes" Lila said.

"Don't get your panties in a wad. Just a few more feet, and you can look" Chuck said, behind her. She sighed in frustration and kept walking. She had no idea what was such a secret, but she went along with it. They shuffled forward a few more feet and he said, "Okay." He removed his hands from her eyes and she opened them.

Her eyes quickly swept the giant room. There were several Jaeger hook-ups around the room in a half moon with lifts for maintenance near each one. It looked like the hanger, but newer. "What do you think?" he asked her.

"It's amazing…what's it for?" she asked.

"This is the new hanger designed _especially_ for your high-tech Jaeger friends" he said.

"Really? Who did this?"

"I did."

"_Seriously_?!" she asked, hugging him. "You are _the_ best brother _ever_!"

"Just think of it as an early birthday present" he said. She chuckled and stepped back. She walked into the new hanger and stopped in the middle to take it all in. the new hanger was much bigger than the old one, and she wondered where the extra space came from, but she didn't ask. She snapped out of her trance of aw when she saw the Jaegers were already here. They stood on the far right side, talking in a tight group.

She walked over and stood far enough away that if they were to back up, they wouldn't step on her. "What's going on?" she asked. The group split so she could see now who was who. In left the right they stood: Orion, White Knight, Rook, Crystal Pawn, and Black King. "We were discussing our next move against C.H.E.S.S. with the Queen at large, the board has shifted" Black King said.

"She has most likely joined up with her bros underground. They're probably debating the best way to wipe us out" White Knight said.

"Always the pessimist" Rook mumbled.

"Well that's what they're doing! It's what we're doing, aren't we?" White Knight said.

Orion said, "Stand down, Knight."

"Why should I let a Bishop tell me what to do?" White Knight spat.

"Have you forgotten the way of the board? A Bishop is closer to the King and Queen than a Knight" Crystal Pawn said. White Knight made a gesture suggesting, if he had them, he'd roll his eyes. "If one of us doesn't follow code, who's to say the rest won't follow suit? Lead by example. And I would like to think I do so" Orion said.

"You do, Orion," Lila said. "All of us need to be whipped into shape—me included. I have to admit I'm not the nicest person some times, but Knight, if you try I will too. Deal?" White Knight rumbled a low sigh. "Fine" he mumbled.

"What's the next move?" Lila asked the group. Orion looked as if he wanted to say something, but he kept quiet, and Black King spoke instead. "We need to find their base of operations. And in doing so we will be putting ourselves in the open. My plan is to wait for them to move. We moved by following the lead to Belize. It's been almost two months and, if I am correct, they're next move will be to attack," he looked at the other Jaegers then back to Lila. "And we'll be ready as hell."

"I can get Tendo on looking for the base. And then I can start on repairs…?" Lila suggested.

"Rook's arm is the most important repair at the moment, followed by Orion's H.A.O.T. systems" Black King said.

"I'll be back later to start repairs" Lila said, with a nod. She looked to Orion. He looked to be holding himself back and refraining from speaking. He shook his head and she left the new hanger.

**Lila** walked to the control room and found Tendo. She sat him down and got him started on the basic search for C.H.E.S.S.'s base. After a while of directed several people on what to look for, she stood and left the control room.

**She** went to her room and changed into jeans and a stretchy t-shirt. She walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. "Where are you going?" Raleigh asked, as she walked past his room. She stopped and turned around. He walked out from his open room and stood in front of her, crossing his arms with a lopsided grin. "I was going to do some repairs on the boys" she said.

"You can't be climbing around the Jaegers anymore, Lila" he said, gesturing to her stomach.

"Well someone's gotta do it."

"I'll do it" he offered.

"You don't know the systems like I do" she protested.

"You can teach me. Come on" he said, pulling on her arm as he walked past her. She sighed grudgingly and followed him out of the barracks.

**They **walked to the new hanger. White Knight was in a hook-up spot and offline, Crystal Pawn was boxing an imaginary assailant to the far right, Black King and Orion were talking a few feet behind Crystal Pawn, and Rook was standing against the back wall examining his arm-stub. As they walked over to Rook, Lila thought of a thousand reasons why this was a bad idea. Rook noticed them coming and straightened. "Back so soon, Lila?" he asked.

"You know me, can't stay out of the hanger" she said, as they stopped walking.

"Who is your friend?" Rook asked, eyeing Raleigh.

"This is my pesky Fiancée that insists I can't do repairs alone anymore. Oh, BTW, his name is Raleigh. He's a Jaeger pilot" she said.

"Logically it makes sense for you to have fallen for a pilot of machines. And I assume he's the father of your offspring?"

"Yeah, but enough about me. We need to hurry up and get started on this," Lila said, walking over to the severed arm. "We got your specific arm type yesterday; all we have to do is install it and possibly run new wires through." Lila looked around and spotted the new arm across the room on a push cart. She walked over and started pushing it. It was really heavy so she moved only a few inches at a time. Raleigh sighed and shook his head as he walked over to help.

**He** took it from her and pushed it over to Rook's arm. Lila huffed and joined him where he stood next to the cart. She knelt down and examined the wiring of the new arm.  
After a few minutes of jimmying, the arm fit on tightly. Lila handed Raleigh the blow torch and fuser from the floor and started giving directions. "Just find the bright yellow wire and white wire then fuse them with the opposite in the new arm" she said.

"This is not as easy as you make it look" Raleigh muttered, as he tried to find the white and yellow wires. He finally found the wires and fuse the white wire with the yellow wire in the new arm and the yellow wire with the white wire in the new arm. "Now what?" he called.

"Use the blow torch to secure the arm to the shoulder and release the support clips" she said, slowly. She was sitting on the empty push cart with a bored expression. One hand rested on the bump of her stomach while the other held her tablet. She was looking at newly downloaded blue prints of Orion.

She hardly heard Raleigh speak when she started to zone out. "Lila? Hellllo?" she quickly looked up and saw he was waiting with one hand on Rook's new arm and the other on his hip. "You look ridiculous" she said.

"_I_ look ridiculous?" he asked.

"Yes, you do. What do you need to know now?" she asked.

"Which wire goes into the blue cup-link: red or purple?"

"Purple" she said, simply. She went back to staring at the blue prints and a minute later felt eyes on her. She looked up and saw Raleigh was still looking at her. "What?" she asked. He shook his head with an absent look. "Nothing" he said, turning back to the open wires. She sighed contently and glanced over at the other Jaegers. A thought came into her mind as she watched Crystal Pawn still battling his imagination and Black King talking to Orion. They looked like a family—all staying close to each other, but giving adequate space so you barely notice it.

She realized the family she's always wanted…she had. It may not be completely human, but she had family that cared for her. She had a father, a brother, a man that loved her, a baby inside her that would soon come to love her unconditionally, and a group of Jaegers that may be strangers but would sacrifice anything you named to keep her safe.

"Lila, what's wrong?" Raleigh asked, kneeling down in front of her. She hadn't realized it, but she had a steady stream of tears rolling down her cheeks. She shook her head with a bright smile. She wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, "I have everything I could ever want." She felt his grip tighten around her and she kissed his cheek. "I love you" he said.

"I love you, too."


	45. Chapter 45

"**Why haven't they made their move yet?" Orion asked Black King. **

"I don't know. It's been a total of 15 weeks since we've last seen them…they must be preparing for something big to wait this long" Black King replied.

"What do you suppose it is?" Orion asked, crossing his arms.

"An all-out blood bath…we should expect the worse."

"**I swear to god, if you try and help me one more time…!"** Lila said, as she tried to reach her shoe laces.

"Fine, fine! I won't try to help" Raleigh said, stifling a chuckle. She tried one more time and failed miserably due to the size of her stomach. She sat back on her bed and Raleigh cocked an eyebrow. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, will you please help me?" she asked.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you" he said.

"Once is all you're gonna get" she said, to which he laughed. He tied her laces and stood, helping her up. He grinned at her and she sighed exhaustively. He put an arm around her waist and they left the room.

**Things** were tense in the Shatterdome for two reasons. 1: they hadn't seen any activity from the two Breaches in over four months. 2: they hadn't seen C.H.E.S.S. for three months. People hurried by, not giving them a second glance as they walked to the mess hall. They sat at the usual table with Herc and Chuck. Lila quickly noticed Isabelle wasn't there. "Where's Isabelle?" Lila asked.

"Eh, the girl's been kind of aloof—hard to pin down. She's here and there but not any place indefinitely" Chuck said, with a lot of annoyance. Lila eyed him curiously at his tone. "What was that?" Lila asked. He looked up from his plate at her. "What was what?" he asked.

"Why are you mad she's not around?"

"I'm not…I never said I was…" he said, looking back down at his food—which he hasn't touched since he sat down. Lila and Herc shared a knowing glance. "Right…you don't care where she is then?" Lila prodded.

"No, I don't" Chuck said, anger coming into his words as he clenched his jaw. Lila started laughing and Herc smiled, knowing why she was laughing. Raleigh suppressed the chuckled coming up in his throat and Chuck glared at him. "What is so funny, _Becket_?" he asked.

"Nothing, _Hansen_" Raleigh said.

"You like Isabelle, don't you?" Lila asked Chuck suddenly. Chuck glared at her now. "_I do not. _Will you keep your voice down? God, you're like a human mega phone" he said, annoyed.

"It's okay to think she's hot," Lila said. "And maybe to-"

"Lila, for god's sake, I don't _like_ her" Chuck said, in a low angry voice.

"Fine, I'll only say this: Don't let perfection slip through your fingertips" she said. His expression changed from anger to curiosity. "Where'd you hear that?" he asked her. She shrugged. "My…mother told me that her mother told her that…and that's what made her sleep with my dad instead of walking away" she said, glancing at Herc.

"She really said that?" Herc asked her.

"Yeah…it was a long time ago. I was seven and I had no idea what that really meant until now. Now I can't tell her I understand" she said, twisting slightly to look at her father. She looked at Chuck and saw he looked irritated by the turn in the conversation. "Anyway, just promise me you'll think about" she told him.

"Why do I have to promise?"

"Because I'm your sister and sisters do things like that" she said. He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine…I promise" he said.

"You better keep to it. I'd hate to see you lose it."

"Lose what?"

"Perfection."

**After** the mess hall, Chuck searched most of the Shatterdome looking for Isabelle. After hours of looking and wondering around aimlessly, he finally found her on a balcony overlooking the hanger, gazing at Barracuda Elite in it's spot with her legs hanging off the edge of the balcony, her back to him. He sighed and walked over to her, sitting down a foot to the side of her.

She gave a sideways glance and went back to gazing at her Jaeger. Chuck looked at her and couldn't help noticing how beautiful she was. She was a younger version of Terra. Long blonde hair that draped over her shoulders, piercing blue eyes, freckles across her cheeks, and soft facial angles.

Her face was bleak and lifeless as she zoned out. She didn't give him a second glance or even ask why he'd come to sit next to her. She figured it was just because this was his spot to think first. Chuck cleared his throat. "You miss her" he stated.

"Damn right I miss her" Isabelle snapped.

"Geez, sorry for opening my mouth" he said.

"She died in my arms and you know what she told me? She said, '_don't you dare give up_'. Don't give up this huge waste of time when I could be with my family. Terra had kids, Chuck. Two of 'em: Shana and Hunter. They're eight and seven and their mother won't be around to show Hunter how to ride the big kid four-wheeler, or take Shana to the piano lessons she wants to take. And I can't do a damn thing about it, because my sister's dying wish was to stay here in this shit hole!" Isabelle said, as angry tears fell from her eyes.

Chuck was taken aback at how easily she said what was on her mind. He thought it'd be like pulling teeth to get information out of her, but he just had to open his mouth and she spewed. He knew how it felt to lose someone he loved. He knew how she felt—down to a tee—but she didn't want him to be the one she confided in. she didn't really have a choice, though, because the one she wanted to confide in was dead.

"What do you want?" she asked, weakly.

"…I want to help" he said. She swiveled to face him. "Why? Sure, we're acquaintances—if that—but why would want to help me? You don't even know me…" she said.

"I know what you're going through. I went through it, too, when my mom died. I don't have to know you to know you're hurting" he said. They were both quiet a long while. Isabelle lurched forward and tightly wound her arms around Chuck's neck. She cried into his shoulder and he put his arms around her comfortingly.


	46. AN

I have a poll up on my profile for baby names. Please vote and tell me which name you want! I have boy names and girls names, and you can pick up to 2 names—one boy/one girl.

Please&Thanks!


	47. Chapter 46

**Sirens** and flashing lights ruined the sappy moment. Chuck and Isabelle both sprung up and ran for the Jaegers.

**Lila** wasn't working, being so close to the due date and all, but she went to the control room anyway. She stood behind and to the left of Pentecost and Herc. On the main screen was footage of the Japanese coast line, getting brutally destroyed by two Kaiju. "Tendo, send out Dark Knight and Barracuda Elite" Pentecost ordered. Tendo said, "Yes sir" and did as he was instructed. Lila inwardly winced knowing Dark Knight was going out. Raleigh had been assigned to be Dark Knight's pilot after being cleared to do so by a doctor. She had argued it for a week after he was cleared, but he's still going.

After the death of Terra, Isabelle needed a new co-pilot. They held trial after trial and no one panned out as far as drift compatibility. Chuck was eager to get back out and help fight the Kaiju so he tried out as her co-pilot. Now Chuck and Isabelle are the pilots of Barracuda Elite.

**On the coast near Japan**, Dark Knight was dropped into the water, followed by Barracuda Elite. The two Kaiju turned almost instantly and eyed the Jaegers. They just looked at them for a minute before starting for them. They're moves were stiff but deliberate—almost planned. The two Kaiju split and ran after each of the Jaegers separately.

The one headed for Dark Knight was stopped by Knight's blade in his abdomen. The Kaiju twisted, snapping the blade like a twig, and pulled the left over metal out. It used the metal to attack Dark Knight again, putting Knight off balance.

Barracuda Elite blocked the second Kaiju's attempt to attack, and delivered a blow to the Kaiju's head. It stumbled back, dazed, then stood taller and bellowed at the Jaeger. Barracuda's right arm formed into a cannon and shot at the Kaiju several times, hitting it almost every time. Barracuda stopped firing from the cannon. The Kaiju had several punctures in it's body and skin molded over the holes.

Dark Knight fell backward into the water. The Kaiju jumped atop it and started stabbing with the broken metal piece. Knight managed to throw the Kaiju off and stand. He just barely got to his feet as the Kaiju lurched for him and tackled him.

**In the control room**, Lila pushed past Pentecost and Herc and squinted at the screen. Something silver caught her eye on one of the Kaiju. "Tendo, can you rewind and pause it for me?" she asked.

"Sure…?" he said. He rewound the footage and paused it on the Kaiju. Lila squinted again to see a little silver object on the back of the Kaiju's neck and part of the head. "What is that?" Tendo asked, as he saw it too.

"Zoom in?" she asked. He zoomed in on that area of the Kaiju, showing an up-close image of the silver object. It was a silver circle with prongs digging into the Kaiju's skin. Lila just barely made out the triangle-square on the side. "Oh my god. They're do something to the Kaiju," Lila said. "See that? That's the C.H.E.S.S. insignia on the side. This is their move."

"Where would they get the Kaiju?" Pentecost asked.

"Beats me…maybe they have a Breach on lock-down, and only they can access it" Lila said.

"If they're controlling the Kaiju somehow, then we're gonna need more Jaegers out there" Herc said. Pentecost sighed and crossed his arms. "Alright…send out the new Jaegers" he said.

**On the coast near Japan**, Barracuda Elite stepped to the side, missing the Kaiju's leap, and forming a sword with its right hand. When the Kaiju faced the Jaeger again, Barracuda swung the sword with deadly precision, slicing through the Kaiju. The two halves slid opposite each other into the water. As the pieces fell, Barracuda was slammed in the back by another Kaiju, knocking it off balance to stumble forward.

Several yards off the coast Black King emerged from the water, followed by Orion, Rook, Crystal Pawn, and White Knight. They stood side-by-side and surveyed the situation briefly before Black King and Orion headed for a Kaiju, and Rook and White Knight the other.

A Kaiju was in grid lock with Dark Knight. Knight's shield was just barely enough to stop the Kaiju from pummeling it. Knight was straining to keep the Kaiju back until the Kaiju was pulled away and the pressure diminished. Orion had hold of the Kaiju by the neck and he held it above the water as it squirmed.

There were four more Kaiju starting from the water. Crystal Pawn, being the closest, started for the line of Kaiju with his blade ready. He hit head on with the first Kaiju, tackling it back into the water. The other three kept moving toward the other Jaegers.

**In the control room**, Lila was now the closest to the screen, watching the battle unfold. She felt a pain in her lower abdomen and winced audibly. Herc came up to her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine" she assured.

"Then why did you wince? Are you feeling pains?"

"Yeah but it's not-"

"When did you feel the last one?" he asked, his voice deadly serious.

"Um…maybe an hour ago?"

"When did you start feeling them?"

"Last night, but it's not-"

"Lila…I think you've started contracting."

**On the coast near Japan**, Barracuda and Dark Knight went for new Kaiju as Black King and Orion fought the ones they had fought. Every Jaeger out was tangled with a Kaiju. And the Kaiju weren't about to give up the fight, making it harder for the Jaegers to fight them.

Orion almost lost his hold on his Kaiju, but reined it in quickly and efficiently. He had one hand gripping the Kaiju's neck and the other with a hold on it's tail. He pulled both hands in opposite directions, slowly ripping the Kaiju apart, until it was in two pieces. He dropped the two pieces and went to help Crystal Pawn.

Black King was on his second Kaiju. He'd gotten the Kaiju to it's braking point—like he'd done the other. He'd beaten it, shot it, done whatever he could to where it down. The Kaiju's skin molded back to perfect condition and seemed to get stronger.

Rook blasted a hole in the middle of a Kaiju, and the hole quickly began to fill again. He shot again and again and those holes filled as well.

White Knight was throwing punches like a crazy…person? Machine? I don't know, but he was _crazy_. He'd finally killed his Kaiju and started on the next when Orion called out, "Aim for the head!" as he smacked down a Kaiju in the head. White Knight made a shrugging gesture and shot the Kaiju in the head. It didn't rebuild itself or get back up again. It was dead.

**In the Shatterdome medical wing**, "I am not doing this without him, dad" Lila said. Her father had forced her to go to the medical wing and she sat, propped up on pillows, on a hospital bed in a hospital gown. Her pains had gotten worse and closer than before. "Lila," Herc said, sitting beside her. "This baby's coming whether he's here or not." she sighed and winced as another pain hit her. "_I can't_" she said.

"Sweetheart, you're not alone, okay? I'm gonna be here with you the whole time."

"But the due date is almost a week from now," she stopped her sentence as a sharp pain made her cry out. "It isn't supposed to come yet." He took her hand and held it tightly. She realized by the look in his eyes that he was completely serious. It comforted her and scared her. She couldn't have the baby without Raleigh, she couldn't, but she didn't have a choice. It was coming.


	48. Chapter 47

**A/N: Thank you to all who voted for the names! The winner will be revealed in this chapter. Hope y'all enjoy it!**

**The battle still raged on the coast near Japan. **The number of Kaiju slowly dwindled, but there were still plenty to keep the Jaegers busy. The aim-for-the-head approach seemed to be working. Finally all the Kaiju were killed and all that was in the water were the Jaegers. Black King, Orion, White Knight, Rook, and Crystal Pawn all went back to the Shatterdome on their own. Barracuda Elite and Dark Knight were lifted back to the hanger and taxied into their spots.

**Isabelle** and Chuck walked out of the con-pod drenched in sweat and completely exhausted. They were talking about how much ass they kicked when Tendo walked up to them, stopping the conversation. Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "While you were out Lila went into labor," Tendo said. Chuck and Isabelle's eyes both went wide and they glanced at each other. "She had the baby a few minutes ago."

"Are they okay?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah, they're both happy and healthy" Tendo said, smiling. Chuck glanced at both of them before taking off down the hall, and Isabelle followed shortly after.

**Lila** couldn't stop smiling as she held her baby, asleep in her arms. Her father had kept his word and helped her through every minute of it. He was smiling as brightly as she was as he sat beside her. Lila heard footsteps and looked up, smiling even wider as she saw Raleigh walking in. he looked exhausted—a complete wreck. He slowly walked around to the other side and sat beside Lila. He couldn't help but notice the pink hat and blanket the baby sported. "It's a girl?" he asked. Lila nodded quickly. "You want to hold her?" she asked him.

"Yeah" he said. Lila smiled and carefully put the baby in his arms. Raleigh gazed down at the fragile creature in his arms and couldn't stop the smile from penetrating his lips. She was squirming a little in her sleep and he kissed her small forehead. "She's so tiny" he said.

"She's just barely seven pounds" Lila said. A few minutes later, Lila looked up and saw Chuck and Isabelle slowly walking in. Lila smiled and urged then over. Isabelle walked around and knelt beside Raleigh holding the baby. "She is _so_ cute," Isabelle said, smiling. "Have you decided a name yet?" Lila and Raleigh glanced at each other. "Not exactly" Lila said. Herc stood and Chuck took his place, sitting next to his sister. He hugged her and she returned the gesture. Chuck pulled away and looked at the baby. "I won the bet" he said, shaking his head.

Raleigh looked confused and Lila laughed. The only person Lila had told about the bet was Terra. Lila thought back to that conversation in her room, seeing Terra bent half off the bed on her back saying baby names upside down…

"_Abigail might be a good one, too" Terra had said. _

"_Hmm…sounds pretty" Lila said. _

"_It's Hebrew…can't remember what it means though." _

Lila's eyes focused and she came back from the memory. "Abigail…" Lila said. Raleigh looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Let's name her Abigail. It…it was a name Terra suggested" Lila said.

"Sounds good to me" he said, with a smile that didn't match his eyes. He knew she needed it, and it's not like he didn't like the name. It was a beautiful name. But agreed to it because it meant something to not only Lila, but it meant something to him, too.

**Isabelle **and Chuck visited for a while, and then left the room to give them some time alone with the newest Becket. They walked down the hall toward the barracks in step with each other. "When the baby gets older, I wonder which parent it'll look like" Isabelle said.

"Let's pray it looks nothing like Raleigh" Chuck mumbled.

"I happen to think Raleigh is quite handsome" Isabelle said, as they rounded the corner into the barracks. Chuck glanced at her sideways with a cocked eyebrow. "You do, huh?" he asked, sounding a bit angry.

"Have you seen the guy?! Lila is _so lucky_" she said, knowing it would piss him off. She chuckled when she saw his nose wrinkle. "You are so…oh, never mind" he said, breaking off to walk to his room. He was half way down the hallway when Isabelle called, "Hey, Chuck!" He stopped and turned around just as she stopped in front of him. He raised an eyebrow and she lost the self-control she thought she had. She lurched forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his lips.

He quickly reciprocated the kiss, tangling his hands in her hair. Isabelle hadn't expected to feel the way she did, kissing Chuck.  
She expected it to be easy pulling away. But she had to force herself. The kiss lasted for a long three minutes before Isabelle pulled away. "I had to do that…just once" she said, turning and walking away. He had no idea why she'd just kissed him. But whatever the reason, he liked it. He watched her walk away and into her room before turning and heading for his own.

**The** baby lay in Lila's arms and Raleigh sat flesh against Lila with his arms around both of them. The feeling that came with being a parent was unexplainable. Lila leaned against Raleigh and sighed. "What are you thinking?" she asked, quietly.

"That the most beautiful woman in the world gave me a daughter today….and I missed it" he said.

"I wanted you here, too, but once it starts you can't really just hold it in" she said, to which he chuckled softly. He kissed the top of her head and rested his chin there. "It's okay. I'm here _now_" he said.

**Isabelle** sat on her bed and her eyes drifted up to her corkboard, where she'd pinned a few pictures of her family up. The first picture she saw was of her and Terra. It was Isabelle's first day as a Ranger and she'd wanted a picture to hang on her wall. The backdrop was Barracuda Elite, brand new at the time. They wore bright smiles and Terra held two fingers up behind Isabell's head.

It made her sad to think of Terra, and not being able to talk to her. If she were there with her, they'd be yabbing it up about Isabelle's feelings for Chuck, or gushing over the new baby. Instead she sat there alone, wishing days were like they were before.


	49. Chapter 48

**It's been three days since the last Kaiju was seen. **

**Lila** and Isabelle were sitting at their usual table in the mess hall. They were sitting sideways to face each other and Isabelle was holding Abigail. "She's so adorable!" Isabelle said. "Look at her little face. She is going to be one beautiful girl when she grows up." Isabelle gave her back to Lila. "Terra would be pleased" Isabelle said. They exchanged sad smiles. "Thank you for saying that, Isabelle" Lila said. Isabelle shrugged and something caught her eye over Lila's shoulder. Lila followed her line of sight and saw who she was looking at.

Chuck was talking with Herc by the door. If he noticed Isabelle staring he didn't show it. Lila swiveled back around and gave Isabelle a knowing look. "You kissed him, didn't you?" Lila said. Isabelle's eyes snapped back to Lila. "What? I'm sorry, I wasn't listening" she said. Lila laughed. "You kissed Chuck" Lila said.

"How'd you know about that?"

"I didn't…until you just said so" Lila said, smiling.

"It's not a big deal, Lila. One kiss does not mean we're-"

"We're what?" a familiar voice cut in. Chuck sat down behind Lila with an eyebrow raised. Lila turned so she was facing the aisle. "Were we talking to you?" she asked, with fake attitude.

"Well, excuse me" Chuck said, sarcastically. Chuck turned to face Lila. "How are you and the newest member of the family doing?" he asked.

"Perfect, though I wish Raleigh was able to be with her more often" Lila said. Isabelle stood. "I'm going to my room, bye" she said. Isabelle walked out of the mess hall, and Chuck watched her leave with a curious expression. "What is up with that girl?" he asked.

"You know that Taylor Swift song…um…The Other Side of the Door? _'I still leave but baby all I want is you…to stand outside my window throwing pebbles screaming 'I'm in love with you'_ well, that applies here. You gotta think like a girl" Lila said. Chuck turned to her with eyebrows raised. "How do you even know she likes me in that way?" he asked.

"Well, first, _she_ kissed _you_. That's a big 'duh!' right there. And she's been staring at you, like, all the time! Are you telling me you don't notice? You are as blind as bat" Lila said.

"Okay, queen of relationships, what do you suggest?"

"Go after her and kiss her like it's the last time you'll kiss anyone!" when he didn't move she said, "Go!" he sighed exhaustively and stood. "If this goes badly, I'm blaming you…big time" he said, as he turned and left the mess hall. Pentecost walked into the mess hall and stood by Lila. "We have a situation in the hanger" he said to her. She stood and Herc walked over to her. "I'll watch her, you go" he said. She nodded and gave Abigail to him, then followed Pentecost to the hanger.

They walked into the hanger and Lila instantly saw the problem. Her mother, Marina, and Yancy were both standing by the hanger bay door. They looked a little worse for wear. Lila and Pentecost stood a few feet in front of them. "Why the hell are you here?" Lila asked her mother.

"Piper, I swear, whatever you think I've done, that wasn't me" Marina said.

"Oh yeah? Then who was it? The Tooth Fairy?"

"Piper-"

"How many times do I have to tell you, my name is _Lila_."

"What? When did you change your name?"

"Don't play dumb with me" Lila said, crossing her arms.

"I know, okay? I know why you think I've done those awful things, but it wasn't me. It was that machine, the one who is pretending to be me right now!"

"Prove you are who you say you are. Tell me something only I know" Lila said. They were all quiet quiet as Marina thought of something to say. She stood straight and said, "I know what Hank did." Lila's eyes went wide slightly. "W-what?" Lila stuttered.

"I know, and I am _so sorry_" she said. The look on her face seemed like genuine emotion. Lila's eyes were starting to fill with tears as she looked at her mother. "You're dead" she said.

"I faked my death so I could live to see you. I know it sounds like a load of crap, but-" her mother's words were cut off from Lila's sudden embrace. Marina held onto her daughter as her eyes too were starting to fill with tears. "Is it really you?" Lila asked. Marina laughed. "Yes, Sweetheart" she said. Lila pulled away and eyed Yancy. "What about you?" Lila asked.

"What about me?" he asked.

"Prove you're not a machine."

"How? The only person I know here is the Marshall, and we aren't exactly close friends" he said.

"He's a real person, Lila," Marina said. "We met in the C.H.E.S.S. compound and escaped together. He helped me fake my death." Lila crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at Yancy. "I'm keeping my eye on you, and if I suspect anything for even a second, you're as good as dead. Got it?" she asked him.

"Sure, got it. Now where's my brother?"

"Follow me" Lila said.

She led him to the training room, where Wes—one of the Continental Drift pilots—and Raleigh were sparing. "Hey guys!" Lila called, stopping in the doorway with Yancy next to her. Wes and Raleigh stopped sparing and turned toward the door. "We've got a visitor." Raleigh looked angry as he started toward Yancy and Lila quickly stepped in between them. "Wait! Before you try and hit him, he's real. He's not a machine" she said.

"What?" Raleigh asked, seemingly calm.

"I don't know how, but he's not a machine," she said, sidestepping. "Play nice."

"Long time no see, Raleigh" Yancy said. Raleigh didn't say a word. He stepped forward and hugged his brother. Lila slowly started walking backwards out of the room, but Raleigh pulled away and caught her wrist. "Wait a second," he said, pulling her back into the room. "I have to formally introduce you."

"Oh, goody" she said, sarcastically.

"Yancy, this is my Fiancée, Lila" Raleigh said.

"Holy crap, _Fiancée_? You're getting married?" Yancy asked, looking completely shocked.

"Haven't heard that before" Lila mumbled.

"Well, I can see how it works" Yancy said, sarcastically.

"And I can see what a complete ba-"

"Do you guys really have to do this right now?" Raleigh asked.

"Look, I'm just kidding with you. It's nice to see my brother found someone" Yancy said, holding his hand out to Lila. She hesitantly shook it. "Maybe you're not a complete jerk after all" Lila said.

"That was a complement, right?" he asked. Lila just smiled and left the training room. "Yeeep. She's a keeper."


	50. Chapter 49

**Lila** led her mother to the mess hall where Herc was waiting with Abigail. Marina stood by the door while Lila walked to her father. "Is that who I think it is?" Herc asked. Lila glanced over her shoulder at her mother. "Yeah, it is" Lila said. He gave Abigail to Lila and Lila said, "Maybe you should talk to her."

"Why?"

"I don't know, maybe the real Marina Archer would like to speak with the family who's been deceived by machines," she said, holding Abigail close to her. "It's just a suggestion." She turned and walked to Marina at the door way. Marina smiled. "This is my granddaughter?" she asked, happily. Lila nodded. "Here," she said, giving Abigail to her mother. "Hold her.

"To be honest, I never expected any of my children to have children. Especially without me meeting the boyfriend first" Marina said.

"Mom, seriously? I thought you were evil/dead, how was I supposed to introduce you?" Lila asked.

"Good point." Lila laughed. "We're okay, right? I mean we're not-"

"Lila, honey, I'm not gonna judge you. I promise. We're good" Marina said. Raleigh walked down the hallway to the mess hall and Lila grabbed his arm. "Speaking of boyfriends," she said, pulling him over to her mother. "Mom, this is Raleigh Becket—my Fiancée."

"Well, it's about time I met you. When Lila was younger she just could not shut up about you."

"_Mom_!"

"What? It's what you did" Marina said. Lila ran a hand over her face and sighed as she felt her cheeks heat up. Raleigh chuckled and shook Marina's hand. "It's nice to meet you" he said.

"Likewise. I would chat with you two longer, but it's obvious I've embarrassed Lila enough," Marina said, giving Abigail back to Lila. "I have some unfinished business to attend to with your father." Marina walked around them and Lila sighed. "Mothers…can't live with 'em can't live without 'em" she said.

"So, you talked about me, huh?" Raleigh asked, with a lopsided grin.

"I was thirteen, okay? Lots of girls my age thought you were hot; I just liked you because you were a Jaeger pilot. And I _love_ _Jaegers_."

"Mm hmm" he said, amused.

"It's true!"

"Yeah, sure it is" he teased. She scoffed and hit his arm.

**Isabelle **pulled away from Chuck's kiss after several minutes and tried to hide her smile. He didn't hide his. Chuck had her backed against the wall and he was pressed against her, a hand on either side of her. "You're getting soft on me, Hansen" she said. He kissed her and said, "You talk _way_ too much" then kissed her again.

**Lila** leaned on her hip against the doorway to the mess hall and crossed her arms as she watched her parents talk. She'd never actually seen them in the same room together until now. They didn't look to be arguing, so that was a good sign. They seemed to have stopped talking, because Marina turned and walked to Lila. Lila stood up straight and raised an eyebrow. "How'd it go?" Lila asked.

"Fine, for not speaking in fifteen years" Marina said.

"Mom, I need to talk to you." Marina sighed knowingly. "I thought you'd want to know sooner or later. You want to know what happened in between you leaving and me showing up here" she said. Lila nodded and Marina took a deep breath.  
"Shortly after you left, I divorced Hank and kicked him out. Then my Artificial Intelligence system was sought out by the PPDC for a project of theirs and, of course, I agreed to participate in it. One day I figured out a system for the advanced Jaegers, and built one.  
Then another, and another, and another until I had six. I had suspected for some time I was being watched, but that didn't actually faze me until I finished the first size-changing system in one of the Jaegers.  
It was obvious I had made a terrible mistake in thinking I could make the system, even if I knew how, because people are not ready for it. They'd take advantage of it—just like C.H.E.S.S. is doing now. I was working on the last one when everything went dark. When I woke up I was some kind of cell.  
They questioned me, tested me, tried their hardest to break me and get information on who I was and what I was doing and my relationships with my family.  
I met Yancy three weeks after they took me. I was in my cell, he was in his. We didn't exchange names for a long time, but when we did, I instantly thought of you—and I knew I had to get out. We figured out a way to escape, timed it right, and ran like hell."  
Lila let her words sink in a minute. Even though she'd said her mom was real, she still felt the need to double check for inconsistencies. Everything seemed…right. "Well, don't look like that. It's not like I had a choice" Marina said.

"No, no, I was just-"

"Making sure I'm not lying? Understandable" Marina shrugged.

"You know that machine you were working on when you were…abducted?"

"Yes…?"

"Did it have a name?"

"No, I never had the chance. Why?" Lila smiled and motioned for her to follow as she started down the hall.

**Lila** led Marina to the new hanger, and Marina gasped as she saw the five Jaegers. Lila chuckled and pulled her mother closer to the Jaegers as they turned, noticing they're approach. "Hey guys! Guess who's here!" Lila called. They stopped a few yards away from the large machines. Orion immediately stepped forward and knelt down in front of them. "It seems as though you are human" Orion said.

"I see your scanners are working. Who finished you?" Marina asked.

"Your daughter repaired me after your departure," Orion said. "She has become my closest friend and ally. You should be proud."

"Oh, believe me, I am….um…?"

"Orion" Lila supplied.

"Like the…" Marina smiled. "Like the archer constellation." Crystal Pawn stepped forward. "It's good to see you as…well, you" he said. Orion stood and looked at his comrades then back at the two humans before him. "We are united as one for this event. But afterward, I can't guarantee that we'll all be in the same place at the same time," Orion said. "So, for now, I pledge my services to you, Marina Archer."

"What he said" White Knight said.

"I will promise my cooperation on some topics, but no promises" Black King stated.

"I'll have to check my schedule, but I think I'm free to pledge myself as well" Rook said, a bit of humor in his voice.

"Crystal Pawn, at your service!" Pawn said, standing up straight and tall in a mock salute. Lila smiled and looked at her mother. "We're all here for you, mom" Lila said. Her mother's eyes started to water and she hugged her. They pulled away and Marina looked to the Jaegers. "Thank you all for this. I have only one request that must be a priority" she said.

"Just name it" Pawn said, which earned a smack on the arm from White Knight.

"Look after my daughter. Keep her safe. Don't let her do something stupid" Marina said.

"Mom! Really?!" Lila protested.

"I'm a mother, I'm always going to be looking out for you" Marina retorted.

"Oh. My. God. You're seriously going there?"

"Lila, please, you're a mother now too. I don't expect you to understand it right away, but you will."

"Speaking of which, I left Abigail with Raleigh almost two hours ago. I better go make sure everything's fine" Lila said, turning to leave the hanger.

"What did I tell you?" Marina called. Lila stuck her tongue out at her mother over her shoulder and left the hanger.

**On her way to her room**, Lila passed Chuck walking the opposite direction. Lila immediately stopped and ran in front of Chuck. "Wait! How'd it go?" Lila asked. Chuck sighed. "Fine" he grumbled.

"Did you do it? Did you kiss her? You kissed her, didn't you?"

"God, you are such a pest!"

"Just tell me!"

"Fine! I did what you suggested."

"And…?"

"And," he said with a sigh. "We're going to meet for breakfast tomorrow." Lila shot her fist in the air and said, "Yes!" Chuck shook his head. "What did you drink?" he asked.

"Nothing...yeah, nothing. I have to go" she said, walking around him and down the hall.

**Lila** ran into someone else on her way to her room, Yancy. She literally ran into him when she turned a corner the same time as he did. "Sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going" Lila said. He chuckled. "I was just going to say the same thing, actually" he said. They were awkwardly quiet a minute. "I was wondering if I could talk to you when you have time? There are some C.H.E.S.S. things that need to be discussed" he said.

"Oh, yeah, totally. Um…maybe in a little while?" he nodded and then the split, going different directions. Lila walked to her door and slowly opened it. Lila fought the urge to gasp as she walked inside. She shut the door quietly behind her and turned toward the bed, where Abigail and Raleigh were. Boy were they a sight. He was lying on his back with Abigail on his chest, lying on her stomach. They were both asleep.

Lila pulled her phone from her pocket and switched the camera on. She edged closer, careful not to make noise, and snapped a few pictures of them.


	51. Chapter 5051

**A/N: I'm combining two chapters here. The chapter split is marked, which you'll see when you read on. I have no idea why I said that if you're just gonna see it anyway…*Headdesk* hope you enjoy the double-up!**

**Things went downhill **_**fast**_** the next couple of days. **

*_C.H.E.S.S. went public and started getting media attention. They played them like they didn't have a chance, and now look like the heroes in the public eye. The Kaiju that surfaced were easily defeated by C.H.E.S.S. Jaegers, making them look like even bigger heroes. The PPDC had to cut back on spending because of lack of funding, and now can't repair damaged Jaegers or even keep the lights on half the time—yeah, it's that bad. The public disliked the PPDC because they didn't support C.H.E.S.S_.*

"**Don't** shake your head—you know we can do it. We have the fire power behind us; it's not that big of a stretch" Lila said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"If we pick a fight with them, which one will win? Hm? _They_ will, because they've got the military and the public on their side" Pentecost said.

"Why can't you see it? They're on _our turf_, and we have the right to take action against them. Screw the _public_, screw the _military_; we've got five highly advanced Jaegers at our disposal—that can fight, for god's sake! Wake up and smell the war, Pentecost! If this ship is going down, then I'm going down fighting!" Lila said.

"_Miss Archer_, it's not your call" Pentecost said, firmly.

"Obviously! Because if it was my call, we wouldn't be falling apart at the seams" she said.

"That's enough…you're dismissed" he said. She glared at him a minute before leaving the office. She kicked the wall opposite the office and huffed angrily. "Screw him" she mumbled. She walked to the barracks and went into her room. She changed into dark skinny jeans, her tight-fitting black long-sleeved shirt, and her boots. She her hair up into a pony tail and left her room.

**She** walked into the mess hall and found Raleigh, Abigail, Chuck, Isabelle, and Herc all at the usual table. She walked over and stood at the front of the table. "I'm leaving the Shatterdome for a few days" she stated. Every stopped talking and looked at her seriously. "What?" Raleigh asked.

"It's not up for discussion, okay? I'm leaving for a few days, and I'll be back before you know it" she said. Raleigh stood and stepped in front of her. "Why?" he asked, sternly.

"Reasons" was all she said.

"I'm not just gonna let you walk out of here, Lila, especially when you won't tell me why you're doing it" he said. Lila sighed and crossed her arms. "I'm going to C.H.E.S.S. HQ" she said.

"What? Lila you can't go alone!" Isabelle exclaimed.

"Damn right she won't" Chuck said.

"This isn't a democracy. I'm going" Lila said.

"Then I'm going with you" Raleigh said.

"No, one of us needs to be here with Abigail" she said.

"Herc and Isabelle can stay with her, right?" Raleigh asked, glancing at the table.

"Absolutely" Herc said, looking up from Abigail in his arms.

"Totally" Isabelle agreed. Lila sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "No" she said.

"I'm going with you whether you want me to or not" Raleigh said. Lila sighed exhaustively and left the mess hall. She to the armory and strapped on one of the high-tech vests. She put on her gun belt and knife sheath. "You're not gonna win this argument" Raleigh said, from behind her. She sighed as she shoved the clip back into the 9mm she held. "I can do this alone. It'd be safer with just one of us going, then if something happened Abigail would still have at least one parent" Lila said.

"Lila, I love you. I'm not going to let you walk into the enemy lair without me" he said. Lila shoved her gun into her belt as she turned around to face him. His arms were crossed over his chest and had a determined face. She bit her lip and inwardly slapped herself. "Fine" she said. He relaxed a little and unfolded his arms. "But you follow my orders on this trip. We have to lay low, and I don't want you to screw it up" she said, with a grin.

"You forget I have more training than you do" he said. She chuckled and walked past him out the door.

**Lila** had been tracking movement in and out of New Britain in case it was the C.H.E.S.S. hot spot, and as it turned out, she was right. The factory that was run down was now brand new and smoke came from the chimneys. Lila pulled the binoculars from her eyes and turned around to look at Rook and Crystal Pawn. "Okay, listen up. I will send a signal once it's clear to move in. you do not move or say anything until that signal is given" she said.

"What signal?" Pawn asked.

"Um…i don't know, but you'll know it when you see it, I promise that much" she said. Lila pressed on her ear piece. "It's clear on the east side. How's it on the west?" she asked into it.

"_Oh, you know…lonely, annoying. No movement what-so-ever"_ Raleigh said in the ear piece. Lila could hear the voices of White Knight and Orion in the background as he spoke. "Keep them quiet" she said, urgently.

"…_they're shutting up"_ he said.

"Alright. Let's move in and enter at the south door" she said.

"_Copy that"_ he said. She climbed over the rock she was perched on and slid down off the face. She hurried to the side of the building and crept along it to the south door. Raleigh was just getting there when she rounded the corner. They stopped at the door and Lila pulled out her gun. She stood ready and opened the door, slowly stepping inside. Inside were assembly lines with machines building some kind of metal thing. There were no active machines, so Lila continued into the building.

She noticed an elevator she hadn't seen inside this factory before, and walked to it. It was chain-metal elevator with a small, waist-high door. Lila opened the door and stepped inside, Raleigh following her shortly after. They rode the elevator down several floors before it stopped. Lila had lost count after fifteen floors. She opened the door and stepped into the long steel hallway. It was too quiet for Lila, and just as she's started to feel that way, she heard voices. Then footsteps. Shadows closing in.

Lila did what she thought to do at that moment, and shot the two men coming around the corner. Thankfully, electrical zapping sounds came from where they were shot—they weren't human. _But what if they had been? _She thought. She shook it off and turned the corner to the left, continuing to walk down the hallway. She walked lightly, breathed slowly and calmly, and refrained from speaking. All her training kicked in and her senses were muted to anything but a hostile noise.

She continued down the hallway until she heard gun fire and she froze momentarily. She quickly turned around—toward the sound—and ran back around the corner. She couldn't see anything. as soon as she turned the corner her vision went black.

_(Chapter 51)__**  
"Lila? Lila, wake up…Lila, wake. Up." **_

Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she immediately felt a pounding pain in the back of her head. She moaned in pain and tried to lift her arm, but she was restrained. Her arms were cuffed behind her back and her ankles were tied to the legs of the chair in which she sat. She wriggled but it was no use. "This is bad…" Raleigh said behind her. She craned her neck to get a sideways look at him. He was tied back-to-back with her on another chair. She sighed and turned her head around to face forward.

She was quiet for a long time thinking of escape strategies. The room was empty, it was metal, and it was a perfect square. Lila mentally measured angles of the corners to determine that it was in fact perfectly square. "What are you thinking?" Raleigh asked, suddenly.

"Escape. What are _you_ thinking?" she asked, glancing at him.

"The same" he said, simply. She took a deep breath and cleared her head to think. She thought and she thought and she came up empty. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed in defeat. "This is all my fault" she said, quietly.

"Lila, relax. We're gonna get out of here" Raleigh said.

"Oh…I wouldn't count on that." the machine known as Marina Archer, walked inside the room and shut the door. She was smiling devilishly. Lila rolled her eyes and looked elsewhere. "What? can't stand to look at your dear old mum?" the machine asked her.

"You're not my mother. My mother would know more about my past," Lila looked at the machine. "And you don't."

"Oh, yes I do. I know more than you think, _Lila_," the machine said, starting to walk a circle around them. "I know your parents stopped speaking when you were four. I know your step father was abusive toward you until you were fourteen—when you ran away from home…" the machine rattled off thousands of things about Lila's past. Lila gripped the back of the chair, her knuckles turning white and the undersides of her fingers red. "And then finally, my favorite part, you came to Hong Kong and was recruited to PPDC" the machine finished.

Lila was glad she was finally done. But she hated knowing Raleigh heard every word the machine said about what Lila did or what had happened to her. Lila let go of the back of her chair and her hands were hot. "If you know so much about me, you'd know I would never stop trying to destroy you and your pathetic game of chess" Lila retorted.

"I know you won't. That's why you are here, tied to this chair, with no way to escape."

"What will you do to me you haven't already done?!" Lila asked, her voice and angry shout.

"Let you rot in here while I kill your remaining family above ground" the machine replied simply.

"You worthless, good-for-nothing, piece of scrap metal, bi-" Lila's words were cut off by a fist to her jaw. Her lower lip on the right side was bleeding slightly now, and Lila fought the spin of the room to look her captor in the eye. "You will learn to respect me if I have to beat it out of you for the rest of your putrid little life" the machine said. Lila spat blood at the machine and it hit her again, causing more blood. The machine left promptly and shut the door behind her.

It was quiet a minute and Lila spit the blood from her mouth and onto the floor. "You okay?" Raleigh asked, over his shoulder.

"Yeeeep, fine, just peachy" she said, with dead sarcasm.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her, an unrecognizable emotion in his voice. She was quiet a minute, trying to think of what he meant. "Tell you what?" she asked.

"About your step-father" he said. Lila clenched her jaw in anger. She wished that stood piece of scrap metal had never said anything. "What was I supposed to say, Raleigh? _'Hey, my father raped me repeatedly when I was a girl. But, no big deal, I'm over it now'_?" she asked, with fake sarcasm drenching her words. Raleigh was quiet a minute before speaking again. "You could have told me. I told you everything…and you only told me a fraction of what I just heard. Was all of that true?" he asked.

"…Yes…" she said, miserably.

"Why, Lila?"

"I…I didn't…I don't tell people things I don't need to talk about. It was kind of a sore subject for me, and it still is. I ran away to escape hell, Raleigh. I didn't want to relive it and be treated like a baby because it happened" she said.

"I wouldn't have treated you like a baby…"

"What would you have done, huh? What _could_ you have done? Nothing. No one can do anything about it because it already happened."

"I don't care if it already happened, I care that you would trust me enough to tell me—like I told you about my past."

"It's not a matter of trust…I do trust you, with my life, but I'm not comfortable with talking about it" she said. Raleigh was able to tangle his fingers in with hers and he rest the back of his head against hers. "I love you, you know that right?" he asked. She half chuckled and managed a smile. "Yes, you have a habit of telling Me." just then Lila thought of something. "Oh, shit…why didn't i think of this before?" she exclaimed.

"What didn't you think of?"

"I have bobby pins in my pony tail! I can pick the lock!"

"How are you going to reach them, exactly?"

"That's where you come in. I need you to pull out a pin and hand it to me."

"How?"

"Uh…I don't know, use the only thing you can move—your head. Use your mouth and pull it out" she said. For a second he didn't move. Then he twisted around as best he could and used his teeth to pull out one of Lila's bobby pins. "I got it" he said, his voice muffled from the pin in his teeth. Lila twisted around and used her teeth to get it from him, their lips barely brushing, then she turned back around. She dropped the pin down and it fell into her waiting palm.

She bent her wrist to reach the lock with the pin and started trying to pick it. She fumbled with it for what seemed like hours until she heard a loud _click_. Her wrists were freed and she started to untie her ankles. Once she got the roped untied, she knelt by the side of the chairs and started picking the lock on Raleigh's cuffs. "You know, they make it look _SO_ much easier in the movies" Lila said. Raleigh chuckled and looked at her—really looked at her. She noticed him looking at her and she raised an eyebrow, still picking the lock. "Can I help you?" she asked, turning her eyes back to the lock.

"Just hurry up" he said.

"_Gee_, thanks, I needed that reminder" she said, sarcastically. The lock clicked and the cuffs popped open. She untied his ankles and they both stood. He cupped her face and kissed her deeply. "You're a genius" he said.

"Yes…yes, I am" she said. He kissed her once more before they headed for the door.


	52. The End

Lila quietly walked down the many hallways of the underground C.H.E.S.S. compound. She was trying to find a room that held their information. But she found no such room. She rounded a corner—it was only about the 500th corner—and stopped. At the end of the hallway was a single, unmarked door. There was a black keypad to the right of the door. Lila walked to the door and eyed the keypad, thinking of all the passwords she's had to remember and trying to set aside the right one. She knew it had to be something significant—her mother, machine or not, had passwords of dates that she couldn't forget. She'd done that on purpose.

But now the passwords didn't make sense. Lila couldn't think of which date would be significant enough for her mother to use on an unmarked door. It most likely had something important behind it, so the password must be important, too. Lila typed in _01.23.2029_. The keypad flashed green and the door hissed open. Lila blinked, surprised that actually worked, then slowly walked inside.

It was another square, metal room. It was dark and empty, except for a wide desk against the far wall. There were no chairs or computers—just a desk. Lila walked over to it and saw the top looked like glass. She touched it and, on the glass, popped up a keyboard. Then on the wall behind the desk a blank, black screen was projected. A cursor blinked momentarily, and then words started typing out onto the screen, _"What is at the beginning of the end and the end of space and time?"_

Lila cocked and eyebrow and typed in, "_E_". A long loading bar came up on the screen and slowly started filling. It filled completely and several files came up on the screen in it's place. They were labeled in dates. One was labeled _08.16.2047_. At first Lila didn't think she was reading it right, but it was in fact labeled for eighteen years from now. She held her breath and opened the file.

_File:_

_Name: Abigail Becket_

_Classification: Leader of the Hong Kong resistance_

_D/O/B: 01.23.2029  
D/O/D: Unknown _

_Location: Unknown  
Suspected Location: Shatterdome ruins_

_History:  
Abigail Becket began fighting with the Resistance at age twelve.  
Because of her heritage, she was claimed leader after the Battle of Shanghai.  
She was believed to have the highest rate of survival after the death of her parents. _

_Goal: Kill  
Level of Progress: Unknown _

Lila put a hand over her mouth in shock after she read the file. _How would they know this?_ She thought. _Unless...no. that's not possible. _Lila heard a sound and quickly exited the file. "Too late. I already read it" Raleigh said, behind her. She slowly turned around. "You did?" she asked. He nodded in reply and she sighed. "What was in that file…it can't be possible, can it? How would they know that stuff?" she asked.

"I have no idea how. But why would it be in their system if it wasn't real?"

"I was afraid you'd say that," she said, turning back to the screen. "If this is real—I'm not saying it is—but if it was…what happened to make things bad enough to need a _Resistance_?" Lila looked through a few more files, but found nothing significant or anything she hadn't already known. Lila felt her pocket and sighed in relief when she found her flash drive. She pulled it out and stuck it into a port on the desk.

She clicked _'Download All'_ and a loading bar slowly moved on the screen. She tapped her fingernails on the side of the desk as she waited. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she glanced up to see Raleigh beside her. She sighed and looked back at the screen. "Don't tell me everything's gonna be okay. If I hear that right now, I think I might hit something" she said. Raleigh pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "You're doing it…" she mumbled into his chest.

"You said not to _say_ it" he said, humor in his voice.

"You just have a way around everything, don't you?" she said, sarcastically. There was beeping and she pulled away to face the computer. The screen wrote out, "_Download Complete_". She pulled out her flash drive and shoved it into her pocket. She headed for the door and said over her shoulder, "Come with me if you wanna live."

They made it to ground level without incident. Lila crept across the floor toward the door, but stopped when she heard, "I hope you know this isn't over." She turned sideways and saw the machine posing as her mother standing opposite a conveyer belt. "I know you've got 'friends' outside waiting for you, so I won't keep you," Marina said, with an evil smile. "At least, I won't keep you _alive_, anyway."

"Go ahead. Kill me. What will that do, huh?" Lila asked.

"If I kill you, you won't be there to be Abigail's inspiration to join the Resistance. And, if Abigail doesn't join, then they'll be defeated at the Battle of Shanghai. Simple, really" Marina said.

"So, then what are you waiting for?" Lila asked. Marina's skin started to crack. It all fell off, revealing the metal underneath. The metal started building up, making itself bigger. "Run!" Lia called. Lila and Raleigh ran outside, which got the attention of the Jaegers. Behind them, the ceiling of the factory broke outward. Then less than minute later the front of the factory broke open into pieces and a black Jaeger at full size came charging out.

**Okay, so you think, **_**Five Jaegers against one **_**or **_**that'll be no problem**_**? Well, you'd be deadly wrong. Because that 'one Jaeger' has friends. **

Lila rolled to the side, just barely missing a backward step of a Jaeger. She looked up and saw Rook in grid lock with a crimson Jaeger. The crimson Jaeger got the upper hand on Rook and pushed him down, toward Lila. Suddenly, Crystal Pawn dashed over and slid in between Rook and Lila, sheltering her. Crystal Pawn grabbed Lila and slipped out of the fighting to a spot several yards away and put her on the ground.

It was then she saw what everyone was doing. Rook and White Knight were both fighting crimson Jaegers, Crystal Pawn was still dashing back over, Black King was taking on two smaller black Jaegers, and Orion was in a sword match with the Queen.

Lila knew the PPDC probably were seeing this, and inwardly she cringed, thinking of the conversation she would have with Pentecost later. She felt horrible, knowing there was nothing she could do. Then she remembered something. She gasped and started frantically looking around. "Raleigh?" she called. She started walking to the right, around builders and dead trees, looking for him. She'd remembered they had gotten separated after the fighting started.

She finally thought she'd looked everywhere. She was panicking, for sure. She kept looking, even though most of the area was open so there wasn't much looking needed. She went around a large rock and slammed into someone. She stepped back and saw it was Raleigh. She gasped and quickly hugged him. "Thank god. I was looking everywhere, and I thought something happened because I couldn't find you-" he cut her off with a kiss on the lips. She stepped back and smiled. "I take it you're okay, then?" she said.

"I'm fine" he said, chuckling.

"Good, 'cause I'm not a doctor" she said. She turned and started walking back toward the Jaegers and the factory. She knew she needed to get the information back to the Shatterdome before it was too late. She remembered a file she'd looked through on the computer. It was dated _02.15.2029_. It was about the thing that started the events of the future—a future you wouldn't want to wish on your worst enemy. _02.15.2029_ was in two days.

Lila made it back to the spot Pawn had dropped her off at and stopped. She needed to get the attention of one of them, and she had no idea how. White Knight was the closest. She sighed grudgingly and whistled loudly. Surprisingly enough, he heard her. He walked over and knelt down. "What? Can't you see I'm busy?" he asked, with immense attitude.

"I have to get back to the Shatterdome _today_. And I need you to take me" she said.

"Right now? Seriously?" he sighed in annoyance.

**White** Knight dropped Lila and Raleigh on the platform outside the hanger and quickly retreated to join the fight again. Lila quickly ran inside the hanger and through the halls to the control room. Sure enough, Pentecost was there. He turned around when she burst in. "We have to close the Breach" she blurted.

"What-"

"No, we need to close it now. We can't argue about it, we have to close it. If we don't close it all hell will break loose, I have files to back me up on that!" she said, quickly.

"And who do you think is going to close it? And how? It's not like we have nuclear bombs lying around" he said.

"No, you don't, but I do…sort of. I have Jaegers with uranium cores and self-destruct buttons." He thought it over a minute. "And you know we need to close it how?"

"Like I said, I have files, from C.H.E.S.S. you can look at them while I close the Breach" she said. She pulled out her flash drive and gave it to him. "It's all there" she said. She passed him to the computer and put in an ear piece. She was able to connect it with Orion. "Orion, this is Lila. We have to close the Breach. But it means losing one of you" she said, into it.

"_How do we close it?"_ he asked.

"You have to get into the Breach, then use the self-destruct to blow it up" she said. It was quiet in her ear for a while. She wondered what he was doing on the other end. _"I will close it"_ he finally said.

"No, Orion, don't you _dare_" she said.

"_I will sacrifice myself for humanity. It is my decision"_ he said.

"No, please…" she felt tears coming on as her heart wrenched. "No, you can't."

"_It was a pleasure spending time with you"_ he said.

"I said you can't! Don't go in there!"

"_I am at the Breach. This is goodbye"_ he said.

"But you can't…you can't d-die" she said, tears pouring out.

"_Goodbye, Dear One"_ he said, his voice saddened upon hearing her cry. Lila quickly changed the screen to monitor the Breach. After a minute of it being open it was suddenly closed. Lila knew she should have spoken to someone else. Her heart felt like a lead weight knowing what had just happened. Yes, it was over, but she lost her closest friend. The friend that could have killed her and been done with it, but instead stuck with her when he didn't need to. "Damn it…" she said, in a harsh whisper.

Pentecost, now joined by Raleigh, was watching quietly. Lila turned around. "It's done," she said, shakily. Tears streaked her face and she looked away. "It's closed. I guess that's it then." Raleigh went to her and hugged her. She hugged him back and sobbed.

**Everything would seem over now, right? Well, it's not over yet. **

*A year after the day the Breach was closed, all of the C.H.E.S.S. Jaegers have finally been discarded. If they don't agree to work peacefully with humans, then they are shut down.

The PPDC have been reinstated as the world's protector from the Kaiju. The Kaiju only come up once in a while, but when they do, there are Jaegers ready to stop them*


	53. Epilogue

**~Epilogue~**

_It was long ago my parents defeated C.H.E.S.S. I was a baby when it happened so I don't actually remember myself. A while after it happened they decided to settle down somewhere, away from Jaegers and Kaiju. That didn't stop me from wanting to see them, though. _

_I don't have siblings or friends. I don't care much for talking with people. I'm always too busy for people and people are always too busy for me. I stay inside, daydreaming I'm out piloting Jaegers and fighting Kaiju one day I wasn't daydreaming; I was snooping around my mother's office. i found a flash drive she'd put in the desk drawer and, being curious as I am, I plugged it into the computer. I'd read every file on it and by the time I was done, I thought my parents were insane. _

_But I've grown up since then and I understand it now. I understand why my parents don't want be having anything to do with machines. Because, at the time, in the future I would grow up to save humanity in the fight against machines. I know, Terminator movie cliché. But it's true. I don't have that future anymore, but they still try to shield me from the machines. _

_I'm not an average girl or ordinary. Even though my destiny has changed, I'd like to believe I haven't. On my eighteenth birthday, I enlisted in the Jaeger Program. That was only a week ago, but I thought I'd mention it. I don't do anything significant yet. But I'm training to be a pilot. And I _will_ be a pilot. Just watch me._

_Oh yeah, my name is Abigail Becket. Leader of the Resistance. _


End file.
